Hundreds of young people tried their hand at driving a fork lift or sitting behind the wheel of an HGV during the three-day Skills Show 2016 at Birmingham NEC.
The FTA’s stand included a fork lift simulator provided by Mantra, a Volvo truck and a lorry engine plus a chance for visitors to win an iPad in a competition run by Think Logistics – a programme sponsored by the Association that works with Career Ready to reach young people in schools and colleges to inspire them to consider careers in the logistics sector.
FTA’s apprentice engineers were on hand to chat to visitors and representatives from FTA member Wincanton talked to young people and their parents about careers in the industry.
Sally Gilson, FTA’s Skills Policy Development Manager, said: “Over the three days we managed to talk about careers in logistics to hundreds of students, teachers and parents. With the help of our apprentices, they could hear first-hand how exciting the sector is.
“Events like the Skills Show are so important in connecting with young people – if we don’t showcase logistics then they won’t know about the diversity of career prospects available.”
Sixteen-year-old Bradley Hunt, the youngest ever candidate to pass the demanding Transport Manager CPC exam, received his certificate during FTA’s presentation on the Spotlight Stage on Saturday.
Bradley approached FTA at last year’s show and chatted to Head of Automotive, Technician and Workshop Development Lawrie Alford, who was so impressed he offered to sponsor him through the Transport Manager CPC course.
Just a year later he is now a trainee transport operator with Maritime Transport and says he aims to become a transport manager and perhaps run his own business in future.
FTA has just published its Driver Shortage indicators, that highlight a shortfall of 35,000 drivers across the logistics industry. The research shows that just 1% of drivers are women and 10% are EU nationals, illustrating the importance of EU workers to the sector in the wake of the Brexit vote.

For the full report see:  http://www.fta.co.uk/export/sites/fta/_galleries/downloads/campaigns/the-driver-shortage-report.pdf

Freight Transport Association

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