National Logistics Academy launches to fill skills gap

Chief Executive Mark Currie explained that the decision to create Academy was stimulated by major logistics companies who were frustrated that there was no single provider that could meet all their training and development needs at all their locations across the country.

This need has come into sharper focus more recently as large businesses are starting to get to grips with the introduction in April 2017 of the government’s Apprenticeship Levy.

According to Mark: “Now, more than ever, this sector needs to be able to call upon the support of a single, specialist organisation that has the expertise and resources to deliver workforce development programmes and skills training courses to logistics companies that operate throughout the UK. The system is very similar to that of pallet networks except our product is people development, instead of the movement of freight.”

All customer contact will be through the Academy Hub in Manchester where staff will be able to schedule, monitor and report on each learner’s individual training and development programme utilising a centralised IT portal.

“Training, teaching and assessment is uniform across the country and delivered to the same exacting quality standards. We have developed a novel approach to Driver CPC training that is highly interactive, keeps drivers engaged and promotes professional good practice,” says Mark. 

The National Logistics Academy will by the end of the year offer the full range of logistics training programmes starting now with Driver CPC, LGV licence acquisition and forklift truck training followed later in the year by Transport Manager CPC and logistics apprenticeships.

The Academy’s first customer, Garry Lewis, Transport Standards Manager, Group Logistics and Supply Chain, Tarmac said: “We were looking for a national solution. Somebody who can deliver to a consistent and high standard of training whether it is driver licence acquisition or Driver CPC or even developing our management. And we want them to do that whether it be London, Birmingham or Scotland. Also a company that is going to control and communicate with us.”

Mark adds: "It's not new. It's an idea I've been thinking about since 2003. Several years ago Skills for Logistics tried to set up a National Skills Academy Logistics with considerable investment from training providers, but sadly their academy failed and subsequently Skills for Logistics went bust."

Mark is also enthusiastic about new training courses developed by the National Logistics Academy. 

"We've developed a belting set of Driver CPC courses, purely based on video and interactive discussion – as opposed to hundreds of slides of PowerPoint.

"Our focus on turning learners into great risk assessors. Our message is that 99.9% safe is not safe enough. If an operator is carrying out a task 50 times a day, over the year that amounts to a significant probability that a serious error will occur – with potentially catastrophic consequences."

The National Logistics Academy members:

AE Driver Training – Northampton

Apex Training Services – Peterborough

Automotive Transport Training – Hinckley

Big Wheelers – South Wales

COTSolutions – Swansea and Pembrokeshire

Denby Training – Lincoln

GTG Training – Glasgow and Edinburgh

GTG Training – Wolverhampton

JLD Training – Banbury

Lancaster Training – Heysham

Mantra Learning – Middleton and Warrington

Norfolk Training Services – Norwich 

Somax – Bristol 

South Essex College – Grays

SP (System People) – Carlisle 

Trans Plant Mastertrain – Exeter

Tyneside Training Services – Newcastle upon Tyne

Viamaster – Castleford and Leeds 

Wallace School of Transport – London and Home Counties