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Two GTAs close training

1st June 1973, Page 16
1st June 1973
Page 16
Page 16, 1st June 1973 — Two GTAs close training
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

loor on jobless by Philip Robinson

Two Group Training Associations of the TITB have stopped teaching unemployed Len to drive lorries because many are using le system as a cheap short cut to obtaining n hgv licence. Mr Dave Liddle, GTO for East and South ,ondon and Mr Gordon Alecock at layering and District, say they have uspended driver training for the nemployed until some way can be found to ,uarantee that the successful driver will stay vith his sponsoring company "for a easonable tine". Driver shortage The scheme for training unemployed men ts hgv drivers — drawn up by the RTITB tnd the Department of Employment in Dctober 1971 — was designed as one possible aid to alleviating the acute driver

.ihortage.

It was structured so that an unemployed man wishing to become an hgv driver could be sent from the employment exchanges to the GTAs. If he was suitable he would be found a sponsoring company. The DE agreed to meet the cost of the hgv test, and pay the prospective driver a

training allowance, from £11 to £15.

The company would have to meet the cost of the course — about £25 per week per man; with other expenses included, the company can end up paying about £90 for a man. But this is not how things are working out. Mr Liddle told me: "I had a 23-year-old man the other day who could just barely read. He had some van driving experience and we found him a sponsoring company. They had already agreed with me to put through a block of five men to train them from class 3 to class 1 drivers in stages. "So that man had the opportunity to go right up to class 1, we trained him. Then he went back to the company for 20 minutes and left. He is now driving for his brother. "Many of them stay for just a week, and in the past six months the calibre of people we are getting from the labour exchanges has gone down." This, said Mr Liddle, was typical and consequently companies were losing interest. Mr Liddle has trained 90 men so far; just 40 per cent of the drivers who have been sent from employment exchanges.

Similar tale Gordon Alecock told a similar tale: "We started our scheme in February, and it seems that the exchanges are using Us as a way to reduce their unemployment figures. "I've had people come and tell me they have been instructed by the labour exchanges that once they have their licence they can work anywhere. Well, that would be all right if the DE were paying for the course, but when it's a company's money, they expect some service for what they're laying out." Mr Don Milburn at South West London commented: "I'm having the same problems. Men are trained and then leave employers after a very short time, some of them to work for the big own-account operators for more money." All three would like to see some contractural agreement to ensure that a trained driver stayed with his sponsoring company for about a year. But contracts are not easy to enforce. And all agree that this problem could be restrictedto areas in and close to London. Mr Jack Wood in Manchester told me: "My scheme is going great guns ...." The DE told me they are not considering changing the scheme, but have started — with the RTITB and the DoE — a fact-finding survey to establish the future training needs of the industry.

But while all that's going on, Mr Lidcile's phone still buzzes with calls from five employment exchanges with a total of 100 prospective drivers .waiting to be trained.


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