PERSONNEL FILE
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Truckers' training transformed
• The only industry-related qualifications most drivers hold are their HGV licences. But this is set to change under a Government scheme which establishes the first on-the-job qualifications for truck drivers, traffic clerks and yard staff.
The move follows the abolition of the Road Transport Industry Training Board in its present form, and the scrapping of the RTITB training levy which represents 1% of most hauliers' payrolls.
The farm becomes "selffinancing" in early 1992, but before that its role will be taken over by the new Road Haulage Industry Training Standards Council, which will control the new qualifications. The National Vocational Qualifications will cover every industry, not just haulage. Funding for training will come from a network of Training Enterprise Councils (TECs) which the Government is establishing.
The training standards council, which will be monitored by the National Council for Vocational Qualifications will devise five levels of qualification. The highest, grade V, will cover professionals and senior managers, drivers will come under grade II.
Every student who is put forward for NVQs will have to pass "units of competence". For truck drivers this might include questions about crossborder customs paperwork, or how the overloading laws affect drivers. The Road Haulage Association is heavily involved in the setting up of the training standards council, which will meet for the first time in December.
RHA training manager Rod Jenkins is scathing about the effectiveness of the RTITB. He describes it as a "nebulous body" which did not establish the right qualifications for the industry.
He is confident that the new system will respond to grassroot needs, but stresses that although hauliers will no longer be asked to part with cash, they will need to give their time if the new qualifications are to work,
Training standards council consultants will be travelling the country, talking to hauliers through the trade associations on a local and national level.