Council Profiles
Page 50
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Continuing the series of profiles of directors of the RHDTC
IN 1967, following careers in the police, army and colonial police, John Coates found himself working for the newly ormed Road Transport Industry Training bard (RTITB) as a training officer, looking [fter Leicestershire.
lie was instrumental in helping to form a lumber of group training associations, in:luding what is now GATT, based at Hinckley.
In 1971, John left the RTITB and set up his iwn business initially training HG' drivers Ind providing consultancy services to Ford & ;later in Leicester, which included setting up in off-the-job training centre for apprentices.
He has served on the FTA's Midlands :ommittee since 1972 and, some ten years Igo, became Eastern District representative Or the RI IA. From there he progressed to the ZHA's Careers and Training Committee and iecame a director of the RHDTC when it was stablished.
John ran a road haulage business for 20 fears until October last year and is also associited with the National Training Federation.
John welcomes the arrival of N/SVQs for evels 3 and 4, believing that: "If you're going :o get the job done properly, you have to sort int those at the top of the tree at the same time is providing quality training for drivers, who ire the bedrock of our industry, to achieve quality professional operational standards, It s vital that industry recognises the standards or all levels of activity in our industry."
John Massey, one of the FIA's nominees to he Council, is Operations Manager of J ;ainsbury plc's Hoddesdon depot one of the largest depots in the Sainsbury distribution aetwork. John holds a doctorate in organic chemistry and gained operations and general management experience working previously for Kodak and Dixons before joining 5ainsbury's some three years ago.
John believes that his time with Sainsbury's has helped him to deepen his experience of both distribution and the training associated with that sector.
He joined RHDTC as a director from the outset of the organisation and has developed a keen interest in the development of occupational standards for the road haulage and distribution industry.
"Achieving a nationally recognised qualification such as an N/SVQ could be of great help to those in this industry particularly in
the small to medium sized firms, where there may be greater job mobility than in a large firm with a settled and highly experienced workforce," commented John.
He sees the main advantage of N/SVQs for the larger companies in being able to use the occupational standards, which form the basis of the qualification, as benchmarks for recruitment and staff training. He believes that, in the long term, achieving an N/SVQ will improve existing drivers' esteem and job satisfaction.
"We have developed an on-going interactive drivers training programme which is geared towards the requirements of this industry's N/SVQs at levels 2 and 3," he said.
"The training programme deals with such issues as defensive driving techniques, care of vehicles and customer care. It sets out our company standards and helps our drivers achieve them; while also helping them put their developing skills towards an N/SVQ.
"We are now looking at developing a similar training programme for warehouse staff, which will be geared to the requirements of the NVQ for Storing Goods for Distribution by Road," John concluded.