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THE Training Opportunities Scheme organised by the Department of Employment appears to operate in strange ways. I've heard of cases where married women went along to secretarial courses just to fill in a few hours, and, as they passed the time, they were being paid. The disturbing aspect is that not all of them intended to take up employment at the end of the course. I think it's called Leisure with Profit.
Much more disturbing is a case I heard of, the other day, of a young man, with good basic education, who wanted to find his way into transport management but believed the best entre was through the driving cab. He thought a few years behind the wheel of a heavy goods vehicle would help to equip him for higher managerial things. Sound thinking says I. He tells me he was bitterly disappointed when, at his TOPs interview, he was advised tha they did not undertake heavy goods vehicle training for 21-year-olds since "insurance companies would not take the risk," which all seems a bit daft and certainly is not at all complimentary to the training establishment.
Surely, I ask myself, if the man is really trained and passes his test that should be an end of the matter_ But it seems that all hgv drivers are not equal, at least not until they're getting on in years.
And so our potential manager finds himself too old for the young driver's schemes, too young for the "old driver's" scheme, and it looks like, before he becomes an acceptable age, some other industry will have gobbled him up.