September has come again
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by George Wilmot
SEPTEMBER brings with it loads of details about the next session of courses in a variety of subjects in a vast number of colleges at a medley of different times. Transport courses are strongly advertised with comments like "particularly suitable for the road haulage or bus operator".
The younger man thinks seriously that he really ought to take a transport course to gain qualifications on the ladder to manager or fleet engineer, the older man in his 30s — sometimes even in his 40s — considers that he is in a rut faced with endless years in the same position. Have these men missed their chances or will a course of study, in some magical way, drag them out of the impasse and give hopes of taking a new road to better things?
This then is a time of excellent resolutions but all too often the best of intentions collapse when a man is faced by the question: What course of study should I follow?
Over the years I have had countless letters asking rather pathetically for guidance with the writer obviously in a daze with so many different types of courses in his mind. The regulations for drivers' hours and Construction and Use Regulations become almost simple compared to being confronted with names of courses often put in initial form like CIT, IoTA, IRTE, C&G courses followed by mysterious numbers, IMI, RSA, NEBSS, IFWRI, RTITB, Motec, to say nothing of "sandwich" "block or day-release" courses.
Attempts to clarify one's mind at a local college can be frustrated by being unable to find anyone with the specialist knowledge, and even if that person is found, there is the understandable attempt to persuade the questioner to take the courses actually being offered by that college, when this may not be the most appropriate answer.
Clearing the way The only way to cut paths through what appears to be something of a jungle is by question and answer. Here are the answers to the most frequent questions I am asked by correspondents. (A list of useful addresses is appended at the end)
QUESTION. I am 20 and work as a clerk in the office of a road haulage/ownaccount /road passenger company. Which course would help me towards aiming at senior management posts in the future?
ANSWER. Much depends on your present qualifications.
(i) The most suitable course if a senior management position is envisaged, is the Chartered Institute of Transport (CIT) as this will give a good grounding in administration, finance, and operating expertise. The examination is divided into two parts (Intermediate and Final) with six basic subjects in the first part and eight papers from a choice of sixteen subjects (one compulsory) in the Final. The examinations in the Finals include the "modal" choices of road freight transport, road passenger transport and physical distribution management.
The course can take three to four years to complete by part-time study in the evenings. But the major snag for many about the CIT course is the entry requirement of Ordinary level GCE English Language and four other "0" level subjects (passes in the Certificate of Secondary Education will do, but they must be at grade 1).
Flexible approach
(B) More flexible in its approach to entrance qualifications and yet providing a good grounding in management education for road transport is the Institute of Traffic Administration (IoTA). Applicants for the examination must have achieved a good standard of secondary education and must attend an interview within their local area to attest ability to benefit from the course of study.
The IoTA examination has a shorter first examination with only three subjects but the second part (Associate Membership) is in two parts designed as a two-year course. The whole course can be covered in three years. IoTA ostensibly covers the same ground in less detail than the CIT but it has a strong road transport membership, especially in road passenger.
QI am not interested in senior management posts but I would like to go a little further than my clerical/operating position and become a supervisor. Could you suggest a suitable course I can take?
A There are two alternatives: (i) if you have been in road transport for at least three years and are over 21, try to gain selection through your employers for supervisory management training which will mean undertaking a day-release course leading to a National Examinations Board in Supervisory Studies (NEBSS) Certificate. Most local colleges promote the general NEBSS course which includes industrial relations, financial control, principles of supervisory management and communication. In addition, certain colleges offer specialist NEBSS courses in road haulage and road passenger. Once gaining the NEBSS Certificate you can become a Licentiate of the CIT, or be exempted from the first examination of IoTA, or, if you have engineering experience, become an Associate of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers (IRTE). You may eventually decide to go further and there will be direct opportunity to advance to the final examinations of each of these three institutes.
Evening course
(II) If you are in road passenger transport, there is a Royal Society of Arts (RSA) examination arranged through an advisory body — National Committee for Road Transport Education. The course, which can be taken in the evenings, at some 40 colleges in Great Britain, has been reconstructed and specially designed for first-line management in road passenger operation. There is no RSA examination course this September for those in road goods but negotiations are in hand for an award of a certificate of competence in road goods operation.
QI am a fitter in a road haulage/ passenger business and I would like to set my sights on eventually becoming a fleet engineer. What is your advice?
A You do not state what qualifications you currently possess. The normal progression of awards would be first to take the City and Guilds (C&G) examinations for motor vehicle mechanics (no. 381) with a view in following years to working towards a C&G Full Technological Certificate, no. 390 (FTC). These courses are arranged at most local technical colleges and can be taken either under day-release or part-time evening arrangements.
When you have reached the stage of studying for the FTC, it would be wise to register for a course leading to the IRTE final examination (section C, part II) a course which can be taken either in the day or evening at about 30 centres in Great Britain. To be a fleet engineer you will normally need to be a Corporate Member of the IRTE and this will depend on length and experience in mechanical engineering, including supervisory posts, as well as on success in examinations.
QI understand that there are parttime university courses in transport. Do these cover all areas?
A Nearly every university organizes specialized short courses over a few weeks duration, one-day conferences, weekend and vacation courses, with Manchester, Newcastle, Loughborough, Strathclyde (Glasgow), Bradford and Birmingham being prominent in courses of road transport interest. Only Leeds (a Certificate) and London (a Certificate and Diploma in Transport Studies), however, each arranges a part-time prescribed course leading to an award. There are no specific qualifications for entrance in either course but applicants under 30 should have academic or professional qualifications.
For older men There are opportunities for the older man, who having reached a management grade, desires extra qualifications. The Certificate courses are for three years by part-time evening study or can be taken by day-release over two years. London includes the further award of a Diploma following the Certificate, this award is based on a, piece of research.
A good result in the Diploma leads straight to a Master's degree course (full or parttime) at a number of universities. Both London and Leeds require physical attendance in prescribed classes and neither course can be taken by correspondence.
QIf I miss the enrolment period at a local college, I understand I shall have to wait until September 1974 before taking up a transport course. Is there any way round this regulation?
A You have been misinformed. It is not compulsory to attend the enrolment period at any college, although advisable in order to ensure the gaining of a place on the day of the week required and perhaps to gain advice at the same time. If you decide to take up a course in early October after the enrolment period, it is quite in order to start the course up to the third meeting in nearly all colleges (even up to the sixth week in many colleges). There is, or course. the danger that a particular course will be full, but, currently, this is unlikely in a transport course.
QI am in a general road haulage business but would like to specialize in furniture removing. None of the professional institutes seems to cover this aspect in its examination schemes. What do you advise?
A There is a specialized institute —
the Institute of the Furniture Warehousing and Removing Industry, which is associated with the British Association of Removers — and this has its own examination scheme at two levels, Graduate and Associate Member. The only courses available are held in Wolverhampton, Manchester and London (Holborn) but there is an excellent correspondence course organized by the IFWRI (279 Gray's Inn Road, London WCIX 8SY).
QDoes the Road Transport Industry Training Board (RTITB) run courses of its own?
A No — the RTITB, although often sponsoring courses, nearly always works
in conjunction with local colleges and • other agencies. There is an exception, to which you may be referring, and this relates to the work of the MultiOccupational Training and Education Centres (Motec) which are organized directly by the RTITB. These are fulltime residential courses of one week covering a range of skills, especially aspects of supervisory or management training. The full list of these courses can be obtained from Road Transport, the RTITB journal.
I have heard that there is an examination scheme for road transport management certificates in various grades. I would like to follow a course for these certificates, but my local college says it knows nothing about such courses or certificates. Where can! enrol for these courses?
AI am not surprised that your local college denied all knowledge of this scheme since no such examination system is in existence. Your information is rather ahead of time! A scheme for awarding certificates based on four grades of competence and responsibility in road goods transport is in fact being worked out at this moment by the Educational Coordinating Committee of all road training and educational interests in road freight transport. The Committee is the successor to the old Transport Manager's Licence Committee which was preparing a statutory scheme of licensing under the 1968 Transport Act, a section of the Act which is not likely to be activated in the foreseeable future.
The scheme being prepared by the new committee, however, will not add another examination system. The various grades are being interlocked with grades of membership in professional institutes, while experience and other examination awards will be taken into account. For example, proposals include a Grade I Certificate for applicants possessing the highest grade of professional institute membership, a Grade 2 Certificate for full Corporate Members of an institute and a Grade 3 for those who have passed some of the preliminary examinations towards Corporate Membership. A further grade is being worked out and may take place through the agency of an RSA examination.
EEC proposal It is possible, owing to a proposal from the EEC that each road goods manager should have a certificate of competence, that the scheme may be started in part by September 1974.
QI cannot possibly get to a class in time since I live more than 30 miles from the nearest college, and this college does not offer all the alternatives I was proposing to study. Are there any suitable correspondence colleges?
A I am afraid there are many students in this position since there are great gaps in the transport course provision at colleges, over many areas in Great Britain, especially in Scotland outside Glasgow and Edinburgh. There are three correspondence colleges all offering thorough transport courses of study which also begin in September:—
(I). The Transport Tutorial Association, School of Business, Ealing Technical College, St Mary's Road, Ealing, London W5, specializes in CIT courses and organizes revision weekend courses in residence.
(ii) Pitman's College of Transport, Central House, 27 Park Street, Croydon CR9 3NQ — CIT and IoTA courses at all levels and the RSA road passenger course.
International Correspondence Schools, Intertext House, 160 Stewart s Road, London SW8, specializes in the Intermediate of the CIT examinations.
THIS LIST of questions is by no means exhaustive — no mention, for example, is made of national awards like the Ordinary and Higher National Certificates in business and technical subjects. It is an outline of some of the ways of selecting the right course for those in road transport. More details and advice can be obtained by writing to: CIT 80 Portland Place, London W IN 4DP. loTA 8 Cumberland Place, Southampton SO1 2BH.
IRTE 1 Cromwell Place, London SW7 2JF. London University Extra-Mural Studies, 7 Ridgrnount Street, London WC1.
Leeds University Adult Education Department, The University, Leeds 2. RSA Miss D. M. Kirby, London Transport, 55 Broadway, London SW1.
RTITB Capitol House, Empire Way, Wembley, Middlesex.
NEBSS 76 Portland Place, London WIN 4AA.