RHA assesses training landscape
The Road Haulage Association’s (RHA) training arm has said that it expects the virtual learning environment to continue to complement its classroom-based training offering in the future, but that there is still a strong appetite for face-to-face training.
“Despite the lockdowns and restrictions imposed on us all last year, at the beginning of the year our schedule was particularly busy with lots of classroom and face-to-face training booked, perhaps in anticipation of fewer restrictions in 2021,” said Mark Taylor, RHA head of training and sales for England and Wales.
“Our Transport Manager CPC, refresher, operator licence awareness, Driver CPC, apprenticeship training, train the trainer, driver assessor, safe loading, fleet management, ADR: whilst much of it is available online now, a lot [of face-to-face training] either in the classroom, in the cab or in the yard was also scheduled.”
Mark continued: “Of course, we began the year in another lockdown but in anticipation of the restrictions that were imposed upon us all, we had already made contingency plans to move everything that we could online.
“Having delivered online training to over 1,000 candidates in 2020, our training managers have become very adept at engaging with our delegates on our online platform; and interestingly, the feedback and results coming through have been very positive.”
An online Transport Manager CPC course with 10 candidates which commenced last October and ran over 20 weeks – a half-day session per week – into the March exam, resulted in a 95 per cent pass rate across the two exams, Mark reports.
“Perhaps the spread of the course over a longer period contributed to the success of the cohort, or perhaps the remote learning experience suited the candidates’ learning styles. Time will tell and we’ll continue to monitor feedback and results moving forward,” he said.
“So what does the future hold? Without a doubt, training in the virtual environment is here to stay, complementing our classroom-based portfolio. I’ve no doubt it has its place in our plans moving forward, as it offers greater flexibility for employers when deploying their staff for training and takes cost out of travel and hotels as well.
“That said, there will always be the need for the one-to-one engagement. On a human level it’s natural for us to work in communities. Eye contact and tacit learning gained working in a group offer a different learning experience, and the bookings for our classroom-based training courses in May for Transport Manager CPC suggest there is still a strong appetite for being in a physical classroom.”
