TfL, DWP and BIS at the IOC Heads of industry fellows round table event despite ultra congestion as Trafalgar Square closed for the Olympic celebration medal party. It was a full house to share best practice and put issues to the table. Opening with a transport style bacon butty lunch for a network opportunity of like minded teams to focus on key express issues. IOC Chair Carl Lomas MBE opened with introductions, ‘City Sprint, Hermes, DPD,GLH, Diamond, Gnewt, DHL, GSG, Rush, Swift, UK Mail and more introduced themselves as Lomas urged talk about key and imminent issues. ‘
John Hix FORS / ‘Practitioner model for white van in a sub contract platform’ John Hix outlined FORS, over 4 million members, half of the fleets were vans. John talked FORS practitioner as a perfect qualification fit to the much talked about degree apprenticeship trailblazer for next generation managers in final mile. FORS practitioner would make a perfect step into management knowledge for any new individual taking on the role in the sector of express.
Employer focus for proposed three to five year degree already drew vision from an expression of interest to BIS that compliance qualifications such as management cpc and FORS practioner would lead into a degree relationship on a part time basis with Universities in the UK logistics hot spots for delivery in a period of three to five years, funded by future levy payments following HMRC collections beginning in May 2017.
Round table focus group, What do you want from the Next generation workforce?
1. Job Role What job roles in your business might be covered by a degree apprenticeship route? What job titles in your business. Do you currently recruit graduates to these roles, might the DA route replace or complement this?
2. Expectations The DA needs to equip apprentices with a range of knowledge, skills and behaviours. People Management. Industry Technical. Business Management. What knowledge, skills and behaviours need to be taught and developed in each of these?
3. Mix of work and learning. The current DA models have around 30 hours/week in work and then teaching and personal study – i.e 4 days work, one day study in a five day week. Is this balance OK? What implications are there arising from 24/7 operations? What is the expectation of the teaching element – attendance at the university or on-line teaching or lecturer in the workplace?
John Bowman IOC / Sarah Bell Univ Derby – Employer views on the degree apprenticeship summary. Employers shared and discussed their expectations of the knowledge, skills and behaviours they will expect apprentices to develop through the degree apprenticeship. Themes discussed were collected by table facilitators and will be reported shortly via the IOC web.
Carl Lomas IOC chair, secretary to the employer group for Express Trailblazer - With exploding delivery numbers in the express delivery, shift from high street retail to home delivery expected to be half of all retail value by 2020, light van registrations up 18% in a single year and three Q4 million foot sortation sheds in middle England 2015. London population increase near two million by 2030. The next challenge is a workforce with skills to deliver the booming numbers in an evolving platform. Minister Robert Halfon has delivered news set to provide a legacy, a step change in the sector, a trailblazer apprenticeship for express delivered before the end of the year, ready for levy. SMEs will get ninety per cent funding, large companies will draw from a levy pot collected by HMRC.
Alex Farkas DWP – Driver workforce solutions with the job centre. Every aspect of the road transport sector is vital to the continuing prosperity of the United Kingdom economy. The industry will need to invest more in recruitment, training and driver welfare and it will also be necessary to promote the sector better in schools and colleges. It is important that the sector broadens the pool of people from which it recruits to ensure Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups and women are better represented in its workforce. The longer-term sustainability of the UK’s express and road transport sector could be undermined if there is not a steady stream of people through the sector gaining the skills and experience that are needed to help the industry grow and evolve. It needs to increase the number of entry points to ensure that it can attract new employees from all sections of society including older workers, military service leavers and those from other driving occupations. There are a significant variety of roles available for employees in logistics and the promotion of the scope of employment opportunities can only assist in attracting the workforce of the future. Jobcentre Plus is one channel that industry can utilise much more effectively to compliment a national attraction strategy.
Academic focus at event for Unversities Derby, West London, Sheffield Hallam, Manchester Met.
Employers listen on academic issues for Trailblazer at level 6
