I A life of its own
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John DarKer analyses e role of ne Road Transpo Inclustry Training Board since its inception twelve
years ago and finds that this insti-u-ion dready ha
IT IS A FAIR BET that the initials RTITB are known by more people in road transport than any other set of initials. Whether or not the Road Transport Industry Training Board set out, some 12 years ago, to become an institution, it has certainly become one. And though the Board — indeed any Industrial Training Board — could contrive to work itself out of a job, I think this is unlikely in the next decade.
In Britain, institutions have a life of their own, The longer they survive, the more durable they become. You could say that this comes about in part through the resourcefulness — even guile — of the Board and its staff. But those who use and benefit from an institution may have strong reasons for wanting it to continue.
The poaching of trained labour which was a feature of postwar Britain, and led to the Industrial Training Act 1964, is still a fact of life. Today the ''poaching syndrome" is buttressed by moonlighting and what some dub the black economy".
But one consequence of industrial training boards was that very many firms who had previously relied on poaching expensively trained labour were persuaded, or compelled, by the stick and carrot of levy and grant to give serious thought to the training responsibilities of managers and owners.
Most road transport operators would claim to know a good deal about the RTITB's training role, especially in determining standards. Over the years it has trained large numbers of trainers and instructors. Wherever you look the industry is better trained and more capable of self-improvement today than at the time of the Board's inception in September 1966.
But comparatively few people, I suspect, pay much attention to the manpower planning role of the RTITB. Determining the numbers to be
trained in the various skills against an industry subject to all the vagaries of economic recession, is an arduous task calling for skill in crystal-ball gazing, Not surprisingly, the RTITB sometimes gets its sums wrong, though in David Barnett, the statistical genius who produces regular block-buster reports on manpower planning — the latest, Manpower Planning 1979 is before me as I write — the industry seems to me to be very well served.
For example, the latest report shows that of the 38,773 companies in scope to the Board, 28,022 employ under 10 people. Together these small companies employ 111,460 people, 13.6 per cent of the total industry manpower. Yet there are 294 companies each employing more than 250 people.
Though they represent less than one per cent of all in-scope companies, they employ 44 per cent of the industry's manpower (359,942 out of 817,539). Quite clearly, though, all companies in road transport need professional management, though the larger companies will need more sophisticated styles of management than the smaller, often family firms.
The world-wide recession involving Britain from 1973/74, coupled with other existing trends, has not left road transport unscathed. In the public sector of road haulage the manpower loss from • 'rationalisation of operations and organisation"' has been almost 30,000.
The road haulage sector as a whole suffered a rundown of 34,000 (15 per cent) compared with a loss of 7.000 jobs in passenger transport (three per cent). But the introduction of one-man bus operation led to the loss of 45,000 conductors' jobs.
Manpower planning and the better training methods that it implies lead to some odd results. Shortened periods of apprenticeship, with fewer withdrawals, in particular the widespread introduction of integrated courses which have improved the ratio of completions to recruits, has resulted in a reduction of 13,000 in the number of apprentices actually employed in the industry between 1968 and 1978.
Because some sectors which were in scope initially have been lost to the RTITB, while other sectors have been added, it is not easy to review the complete changes in the picture over the 13 years of the Board's existence. Some figures in the Manpower "79 report are specially interesting.
How many would guess that over one third of the industry's manpower is employed by companies in the South-East? Some regions have lost out heavily in the past decade in road transport jobs. West Scotland, the main sufferer, lost over 20 per cent of jobs (8,800). South Lancashire, Cheshire and North Wales together lost 16.7 per cent of jobs (7,900).
What of the higher strategy problems of the Board?
Eric Tindall, director-general, must plan for the future in a general atmosphere of public expenditure cuts. He hopes that the Government review of policy will give a clear distinction bet
ween industry-oriented El( and what he terms "the WE side".
Professional personnel says Mr Tindall, want to "Rowntreeism and near-fc paternalism". These s, merits, worthy as they I were, have now been taken by governments: " Government is the father-fi we are fighting."
At the same time, the B and its staff, in common wi transport people, must re that unemployment, esper of young people. poses I problems for Governm Some things have to be done and the RTITB and its local manifestations — Group Training Associations — cannot divorce themselves from the economy or from social pressures which highlight the dangers to society if millions of youngsters are left to roam the streets of Europe without the discipline of work, or training.
In fact, GTAs are undertaking a good deal of what Mr Tindall would term "welfare--type training and the funds received for this must be welcome. Preservations grants and TOPS training schemes have helped but he would have preferred to try out such experiments in a -neutral.' environment.
Periodically, old ideas emerge in the training arena for debate. One such is that when there is a recession, training — and the funds to sustain it — should be stepped up. In brief, Boards should operate countercyclically.
When business is booming and profits are high, the labour shortages inspire industrialists to train, if only to ease the tight spots of the labour market. When trade is bad, and money is tight, many companies cannot afford to train and training becomes a dirty word. It is at such times that industry needs help with training.
The Manpower Services Commission has said that Direct Training Groups should be self-supporting. Eric Tindall thinks this idea is fine at one end of the business cycle, but much less easy during a recession since many employers cannot afford to subsidise training then.
The RTITB, in common with other Boards, is open to criticism if its manpower planning and training efforts have not prevented sector shortages of skilled people. There is a shor tage of skilled vehicle mechanics although the RTITB has helped to stimulate road transport to be the second largest employer of apprentices in all British industries.
Unfortunately, even those with a basic training in motor vehicle repairs are easily poached by a number of other industries, some far removed from transport. From some standpoints the -holes in the colander" make training seem a mug's game. Of what real use is sophisticated manpower planning if large numbers of people, well trained by the RTITB, seep away?
The MSC, says Mr Tindall, accepts that some road transport industry skills are vital and easily transferable. The RTITB's initiative, a year or two back, in claiming to be the prime instrument for the training needs of transport and distribution fell on stony ground.
So for the time being it seems inevitable that a sizeable part of the Board's efforts — assuming, as I do, that training and education is good in itself — goes to swell the national total of trained staff. Someone must benefit; the big question is whether Training Boards which multiply skills are properly compensated.
Lest anyone think that my comment on the wastage of trained people means that I am disparaging the manpower planning role, this is not so. I think the analogy is that of a holed ship, whose safe navigation to port is very much more complicated.
When a Training Board chairmanship becomes vacant, the chosen instruments of Government "shop around" in the restricted highlands of the eligible. There are always some experienced men of affairs in politics, in the trade union hierarchy and in industry who are potential candidates.
In the choice of Fred Lloyd, who became chairman of the RTITB last November, road transport obtained the services of a seasoned manager with a number of specialist qualifications.
Mr Lloyd is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and a Fellow of the Institute of Statisti cians and of the Chartered Institute of Transport. When you add to these his wide managerial experience at London Transport, where he was chief commercial and planning officer and his more recent stint as the first director of West Midlands PTE (1969-78), you have a pilot who knows what's what in transport.
Since his appointment as chairman, Mr Lloyd has been "going the rounds" learning about aspects of the industry relatively new to him, and finding it all very interesting.
Apprentice training activities are close to his heart, for at Birmingham the PTE vastly expanded the 12 apprentices a year trained by the City bus undertaking, boosting this number to 40 and then 50. You get an idea of the competition for a PTE motor vehicle apprenticeship when you learn that a year or so back, there were 1500 applications for 50 places. A College of Further Education helped with the ' 'vettingof apprentice candidates.
Perhaps it is needless to remark that nearly half of the PTE apprentices melted away into the polyglot engineering and motor manufacturing industries. That ever-present aspect of training is, I think, burned into Mr Lloyd's soul!
As RTITB chairman, Mr Lloyd has been greatly impressed by the enthusiasm of the union representatives on the Board for high-quality training. He is pleased because "wherever I go there is a great dearth of well trained personnel".
One of the exciting things about the Board's present apprentice training scheme is that it is comparatively very cost-effective. To set up a single training place is expensive but it is possible with integrated courses to put six or seven people a year through one training place, as has been demonstrated in Scotland.
When this productivity is compared with some university training where the facilities are used for a mere 24 or 30 weeks a year, it is hard to see that any Government economy axe will want to prune down such viable training.
The skill testing innovations of the RTITB have also impressed Mr Lloyd. Training officers say how useful is this approach because it reveals the weak points — to the mechanic and to his instructors, so that remedial action may be taken. Employers, of course, have an interest in increasing the skill of a craftsman who needs additional practice in, say, welding.
The training field is fastchanging, says Mr Lloyd, and it is a challenge to the Board to keep on top of this new legislation — hazardous loads, health. and safety, industrial relations — the field is a wide one.
I asked Mr Lloyd about the scope for joint training of managers and shop stewards. He was very confident that there are difficulties because of the risk that full-time officers will resent an apparent loss of control of their membership. But firms can encourage shop steward training under proper auspices.
Mr Lloyd strongly feels that Board support for GTA's should not be restricted to the lame ducks. To do this would lead to training waste and misuse of resources. And he thinks that Government help should be available to compensate the road transport industry, and the Board, for those who have been well trained and are subsequently poached away by other employers.
At the risk of being controversial, I think the Board should grasp the nettle of shop steward training, which in my view, after last winter, should be a national preoccupation. The Board has trade union and academic members as well as employers. Courses based wholly on a TUC sy[labus would. be better than nothing.