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Recruitment driver

28th October 2004
Page 26
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Page 26, 28th October 2004 — Recruitment driver
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Which of the following most accurately describes the problem?

Eurosafe Training's Geoffrey Cave-Wood tells Brian Weatheriey the answer to the driver shortage is staring the industry in the face.

After talking to Geoffrey Cave-Wood for 10 minutes we regret ever having started the conversation. Not that he's boring— quite the opposite. It's the subject matter we're struggling with. We've travelled to Minster, in Ke nt, to talk to Eurosafe Training's boss about the various government schemes designed to put people back to work. But after a steady stream of New Labour buzzwords like "Gateway" and "New Deal", plus snappy acronyms including "WOBLAS" (that's Work Based Learning for Adults to you and me) we're about ready to open a vein.

Even Cave-Wood admits to being challenged: "We've been doing this job for six years and I still learn new things everyday. It's so bloody complicated!" That Cave-Wood actually wants to make sense of it says much about his passionate desire to tackle the current road transport recruitment crisis.

Listening to the ticking

But then the former owner of Cave-Wood Transport (now part of French giant Geodis) heard the recruitment time bomb ticking long before many others: "I remember taking part in a survey in 1996 which the RHA did annually with Lloyds Bowmaker. They called me as a member and asked me what I thought were the major issues facing the industry. I said: The biggest problem will be the shortage of drivers in 10 years' time.' The person on the end of the phone replied 'No-one's said that before..."' They're certainly saying it now, although Cave-Wood remains frustrated by the lack of progress in solving the problem.! believe in this industry. I still love it. It makes me sick to see how sick the industry is.The RHA and ETA bleat on about it, while the unions concentrate on wages instead of working conditions."

The answer, he insists is staring us in the face: "Training's the future. It has to be. Most drivers are now in their 40s and 50s once they come out there's no-one behind them and that's why there's a shortage."

Spurred by that shortage,in 1998 Cave-Wood launched Eurosafe. Its mission was simple: mine the rich vein of unemployed adults and youngsters within the plethora of government and locally backed training schemes and prepare them for a job in transport.

Typically that means providing short courses of two to six weeks during which time someone can learn, say, to drive a forklift. Candidates on longer occupational training courses can be with Eurosafe from anything up to 26 weeks. The firm also trains youngsters coming from the Environmental Task Force and those sent by local Job Centres.

Long-term and disabled Most trainees are either long-term unemployed. or disabled, although Cave-Wood prefers the word "disadvantaged". "It applies to all sorts including refugees, people with English as a second-language, ethnic minorities and exoffendersthey're all eligible for training. We're a bit of an unusual animal in that we put together all kinds of packages whether it's forklifts, cars. vans or lorries, We get people coming to us all the way from South London because there's nothing like this available where they are.

Eurosafe's graduates fall into four distinct groups. he explains: "The first I call them 'As' can't wait to get back into employment.They turn up every day, are motivated, civil, go through the training and pass out the door again into a job."

"The 'Bs' are long-term unemployed who've often been dealt a bloody awful pack of cards in life. Nobody's helped them. They come to us because they just want a j ob. We give them the opportunities so they can become As'."Aspirations amongst this group are often low: "They sometimes say to me, 'Could I drive a lorry?' When I say 'Why not?' their eyes light up!"

Next come the 'Cs' who, according to CaveWood,are the most problematic:"They're clever, often with skills. They're probably already driving illegally or are jobbing builders or window cleaners and still claiming benefit. Half of them are mandated to us but they'll make every excuse not to he. Sometimes they can be quite charming. But they'll cynically exploit the system and never change."

The last group the 'Ds' present the biggest challenge:"They're people who are effectively unemployable," says Cave-Wood. "They're on stuff, they're aggressive, they constantly argue,they get drunk and over-sleep. In short. they're social misfits" But CaveWood maintains Ds can become As given a chance: "They can meet a partner who says "pull yourself together if you want to stay with me' and they do." Equally 'As' can become `Ds': "There's no fixed way or guarantee that anyone will stay in their group."

Cave-Wood believes more should he done to help youngsters, particularly the non-academically inclined: "The careers advice given to many is poor, and so is their education! Why should school be boring? It's the same with the Job Centres. We must do better in motivating youngsters and firing their imagination."

Current fIGV licensing laws don't help:" If a young lad wants to be a lorry driver at 16 there's not much we can do for him. Yet in France or Belgium they've got two-year training programs that will have them driving an HGV at 18.Ancl typically most people who want to drive a lorry leave school long before 18. The only thing they can do is a forklift that has a lot more value." Hauliers should also consider exoffenders, he says: "This is a sad situation. In prison training is minimal I know from my own visits. It's the same with people on probation." That's why Cave-Wood takes immense pride in the company's success stories.

"We had one ex-offender who'd spent most of his fife in prison.At 50 he said tome:' I've had enough of that.' He's been working for an agency and they think the world of him. My message to employers is keep an open mind it's the same with refugees, there are good and bad but then there are good and bad in every walk of life.., it's very satisfying when a guy comes back to us and says: 'I've been working and I've just bought my first house."

Training can also provide the stability and self-respect that many unemployed people desperately need:-We had one young man on a lorry licence course. He was living in his car, having split up from his girlfriend who had a baby. He's now got a job and hasn't crossed the threshold of a Job Centre since." Result. •


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