New Driver CPC training endorsement scheme launched
The government-licensed sector skills council for the UK’s freight logistics industry has announced the launch of a new voluntary scheme of endorsement for Driver CPC training providers.
Skills for Logistics (SfL) says the scheme will be operational this summer, and is asking training providers and employers to help develop it, with a view to ‘sharpening up’ Driver CPC and making it more relevant to operators.
The scheme will aim to provide operators with confidence that the companies endorsed by the scheme are delivering Driver CPC training of a high quality.
Said SfL: “While JAUPT has the role of ensuring Driver CPC regulations are met, being legal doesn’t necessarily mean that a training provider is ‘excellent’. To address this, Skills for Logistics is stepping into the vacant quality custodian role and is developing the endorsement standard.
“Excellent training providers can expect to come through the standard showing their quality. The set of criteria for the assessment, which is currently being planned, will be based on high quality training and business benefit.”
SfL says it will maintain a live database of all endorsed training providers and those who have had their endorsement removed as a result of falling below the required standards. The process will incorporate unannounced audits and ‘secret trainees’, which the skills council claims will ensure standards are maintained during the three-to-five-year period between assessments.
Those providers achieving the endorsement will be entitled to use a ‘kite mark’ in their marketing materials. SfL says that the scheme could be deployed across the European Union further down the line.
Dr Ross Moloney, CEO of Skills for Logistics, said: “This will not be a mandatory scheme but we know there are many training providers who would like to compete on quality, and that there are employers and individuals who want visibility of the standard of DCPC they are receiving or employing.
“We expect a significant number of the 1,400 approved DCPC training centres to engage with the process, to see how they measure up against others, and to gain the opportunity to examine how to improve their service, in addition to marketing their quality. While JAUPT recognises you as being legal, Skills for Logistics will endorse you as being excellent.”
He continued: “We will be engaging with other sectors that have similar quality systems and we have already started working with training providers and employers to establish the metric that will help training providers offer training that is good in terms of business benefit. Ultimately, the scheme will help excellent training providers show off their wares and help others to improve the service that they offer. Employers, meanwhile, will be able to make an informed decision about the DCPC solutions on offer.”
DCPC training providers who wish to join the scheme, and employers who would like to help develop the standard, are invited to contact Dr Moloney at Skills for Logistics.
