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Government helps pay for a graduate to join family firm
Page 16
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Looking to bring new blood into your company's management team? Ever thought about taking on a graduate? Guy Sheppard reports.
A BLACK COUNTRY haulier is planning to take on a high-flying graduate as part of a governmentfunded scheme to make better use of academic expertise. AE Hawkins of Kingswinford is thought to be the first small, family-run haulier to participate in Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP), in which up 10 60% of the costs are met by the taxpayer.
MD Gary Hawkins says the appointment should strengthen the 70-year-old company's management team.
-We're typical of third and fourth-generation family haulage companies," he says. "There's my dad,who's 80 this year. and me. There's very little else. We're asking for an IT and business-type person and with that raw material we hope we can train them up."
He adds that the problem with taking on people who already have a management background in road transport is that they are often too set in their ways for this fast changing business environment.
Hawkins runs a fleet of 10 tipper and 10 tractor units. He set up a 'transport village' 18 months ago, offering a variety of transport-related services such as training, maintenance and overnight parking.
He hopes the firm's graduate will help introduce smart-card technology to the business. This will allow customers who access these services regularly to receive discounts on a similar basis to supermarket loyalty cards.
The technology will also be linked to the imminent introduction of digital tachographs.
Hawkins is running the KTP through the University of Wolverh ampton.A university spokesman points out that the scheme will also benefit academics by increasing the business relevance of their research and teaching.