TNT Post takes ownership of future training needs By Laura
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Hailstone TNT POST UK is awaiting the outcome of a funding bid that will enable it to develop an apprenticeship scheme for 17 to 24 year olds, which it believes could help lower insurance premiums for young drivers.
The bid is for an undisclosed sum under round two of the government-backed Employer Ownership of Skills (EOS) pilot, which closed for submissions last month.
TNT Post UK transport director Dean Hulse said: "We feel there is a need to make the logistics sector more appealing to the younger generation of potential employees.
"Traditionally, once drivers received their licence there was no consideration to ongoing training and continual improvement. The Driver CPC has addressed this issue in part, but we are confident that investing more one-to-one time with employees will have massive benefits in terms of staff morale and perception of the industry," he added.
TNT Post has partnered with clients and a training provider for its bid, which centres around the development of an apprenticeship scheme for drivers, warehouse and transport office roles.
"When we demonstrate that our apprenticeship scheme works and that young drivers do not always equate to a higher insurance risk, I hope insurance companies will take note and ensure that premiums/excesses are reduced," said Hulse.
"The scheme we are proposing will lessen risk and increase time spent with a driver, which is invaluable and is a far more scientific way of ensuring that a driver is at a [good] standard than insisting on two years' experience," he added.
TNT Post's bid also involves an apprenticeship programme aimed at existing staff, and a pre-employment training scheme for unemployed people and ex-service personnel. Another part of the submission involves visiting schools to give 15 to 16 year olds an 'introduction to logistics' workshop, with the aim of encouraging them to become drivers of the future.
"The career path in logistics can be personally and financially rewarding, but more needs to be done to show this as people seem to fall into a career in logistics, rather than aspire to work in it," said Hulse.
• The EOS pilot is run by the UK Commission for Employment and Skills. For more information, go to ukces.org.uk/ourwork/ employer-ownerships Irtec introduces top-level master technician licence Irtec, the independent accreditation scheme for technicians, has developed a master technician top-level licence for the road transport industry. Previously, technicians could be licensed through Irtec at service maintenance, inspection, and advanced technician levels. The addition of a master technician level will aid top technicians in "reaching the high levels of expertise they require in their day-to-day job", said Irtec.
The new licence was developed and trialled with input from industry stakeholders and members of the Institute of Road Transport Engineers and the Institute of the Motor Industry.
Gary Power, retail service operations manager at Scania, said: "At Scania, we have an excellent training programme that takes our technicians through to Scania's master technician level. However, we wanted to back this up with the Irtec accreditation to give our customers the opportunity to see that we have licensed technicians, and to give our technicians independent recognition of their skills."