Where to find TMs
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Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic runs a Higher National Diploma Sandwich Course for the transport industry. We attract a reasonable number of school leavers, many of them with good "A" level passes and keen to obtain careers in the industry.
To avoid turning out starry-eyed enthusiasts we arrange for the students to have two six-month industrial placements. The students are employed by companies, but their wages are usually equalled by industry training board grants. Even if the student cannot be used to cover holiday jobs, the firm loses next to nothing.
In my experience hard-bitten road hauliers are not averse to criticizing students for being useless lay-abouts, so why do they not offer opportunities to do something useful? Certainly, we find placements for students, but few of them in road haulage. Can it. be that road haulage concerns have no need of management development, or do they think transport managers are found under goose berry bushes? D. H. STEWART-DAVID, BA, AMInstTA, Lecturer in charge of Transport Studies, Newcastle upon Tyne Polytechnic.