IOC president, Viscount Lord Falkland comments,
The Sortation apprenticeship provides a clear first step on a stairway of levy funded education for Express Logistics.
The Express Logistics Trailblazer group chaired by IOC education lead, Justin Moore, OnIt Logistics have delivered a step change for next generation joining our sector, and the very first candidate is to sign the paperwork whilst the ink is still wet.
Over five hundred candidates have already signed up for ‘Express delivery’ apprenticeship, but candidates must be in a PAYE role and many folk on the road are self-employed.
IOC chair, Carl Lomas explains,
The sortation apprenticeship is set to change the way new people join our sector. Starting in sortation, starting in a PAYE role in a sortation depot. The Sortation apprenticeship has a training plan developed by the IOC, runs over twelve months, starts with the context of what Express is, follows the parcels on their journey from click, to knock at the door.
The IOC have developed a sixty-thousand-word course book with 14 chapters for the next generation candidates. It complements the existing delivery workbooks.
IOC CEO Dr Tracey Worth explains,
The sortation textbook is built by our sector for our sector. Written in context of level two, we open safety with a signpost statement from the sortation depots, ‘Get your steelies on and let’s get sorting.’ Candidates will learn in the workplace to deliver best practice in safety and with latest sortation techniques. From auto sort to carousel, belt and roller cage.
National training provider Lifetime are set to deliver online versions of the course in the workplace. End Point Assessment Organisation, Innovate Awarding are registered to deliver the assessment at the end of the twelve month learning.
Phil Whitehouse Head of Curriculum and Learning Technologies at Lifetime commented,
Our partnership with the IOC provides us with direct access to sector-specific learning modules that are being co-developed with sector experts. Our curriculum development team are excited to be adding the Sortation Hub Operative apprenticeship to our existing portfolio of products to work alongside the Express Delivery Operative Level 2 programme released last year. The team are now full steam ahead developing the programme and it’s great to have access to the rich sector-specific sortation content the IoC have been building. This enables our team to develop an engaging programme that equips learners with critical knowledge, skills and behaviours needed to succeed in the sector while ensuring the latest safety and sortation techniques” are covered in the learning plan.
Innovate Managing Director, Charlotte Bosworth comments
We are excited to have worked with IOC and its members to recognise the need and demand for a Sortation Apprenticeship. It's fantastic to support the future productivity of the Industry.
It’s all funded by levy, its free to the candidate and the candidate learns on the job. The course follows the parcel, from goods passing the trailer safety net to landing on the sortation belts. Goods are specified in four types from small letter in auto sort to regular parcel, large parcel carousel and irregular, very large.
You can take a look at the apprenticeship standard and a headline of the training plan here on the IOC web. For more details of how to sign up in the first tranche of candidates email Tracey Worth for the contacts to call.
