Plea for improved training standards
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NSPORT MANAGEMENT will have to be convinced that they e lost traffic because their managers are insufficiently trained to it. Senior transport lecturers heard this last weekend when the anisation of Teachers of Transport Studies met in Bromsgrove, rcestershire.
he OTTS is preparing a plan action for 1981, and plans to tact the top managers in nsport to establish their ifling requirements, and proes to compile a list of rses available throughout country.
the course of discussions, y agreed that industry must a need for educated man ment, in order that those o "do" can also become se who "think", and while y agreed that the Certificate Professional Competence has ped highlight the need for ining, it is no more than a tpping stone.
Joh Hooper of Ealing College Further Education told the iference that some of his CPC 'dents had displayed an inrest in undertaking some ther education, and added it a course leading to asso ciate membership of the Chartered Institute of Transport is now attracting on average two • enquiries a day.
Some suggested that, instead of the lowest common denominator represented by the CPC — a result of accommodations having been made with vested interest — efforts should be made to have a management examination brought into line with the needs of the industry.
But while some delegates suggested that the semi-illiterate had no place in transport management, and should perhaps be confined to driving, discussion returned to the fact that the CPC is only a part of the licensing system, and not the education system.
On a higher plane, the OTTS is concerned about the barriers which exist in transport training and education, and about how these can be broken down. They want action to be taken to make operators more aware of what other modes are doing, and to break down class barriers which exist between management and staff.
And efforts are also to be directed towards making schools aware of the opportunities for careers in transport, with OTTS members being encouraged to visit at least two schools every six months to make pupils aware of the industry. They are particularly concerned that, as transport is not a subject for CSE, 0-level, or Alevel examinations, it can be ignored by educators.