Skills policy plays a pivotal role in growing the economy

Policy Lead for Skills, Sally Gilson, outlines how election candidates can equip the commercial transport sector with the skills it needs.

There is a key component for all prospective MPs in this election. Whether it's related to growth, net zero or infrastructure, skills policy plays a pivotal role in making the UK more productive and therefore help grow the economy.

Over the next five to ten years businesses are going to experience significant change, whether that be due to decarbonisation or emerging AI. Future skills will be needed to cope with change and we need the next government to work to plan ahead to meet those challenges.

From gearing up schools, colleges and universities to upskilling the current workforce, there will need to be a plan in place to ensure that training and funding aligns with learners and business needs.

The future funding for training, especially for upskilling the current workforce will need to be flexible and not all courses need to be 12 months; quality training can be delivered in many forms and for those people in the workplace who have multiple commitments, crucially they need to be adaptable to fit in with work, family and personal life.

The Apprenticeship Levy was brought in to raise the profile and increase the numbers of those doing apprenticeships. Unfortunately, what we have seen, especially in logistics, is that due to the inflexibility, many businesses have not been able to utilise their levy funds. The sector paid £965 million into the Levy since 2017. Only 10% of levy funds used for logistics apprenticeships. This is why we're calling for a Skills Levy which would make it easier for hauliers, LGV operators and coach operators to secure the funding for the programmes which better suit their business needs.

Apprenticeships provide an excellent opportunity for young people coming into the workplace and can help people making career changes but they're not the only solution.

We have seen the effectiveness of the HGV Skills Bootcamps since they were introduced in 2022; offering a short course alternative provides people with a more flexible option for training. We're calling for permanent HGV driving skills bootcamp courses and for this to be extended to Category D licence training.

With an increase in the uses of AI for businesses, the option of short, quality digital courses to fit in alongside work so all businesses, including SMEs, can benefit from its opportunities will be crucial for improving productivity; that can be to help with vehicle routing, forecasting or automation for example.

Decarbonising transportation is key to the UK hitting Net Zero targets. As technology changes to zero-emission vehicles, we'll need the existing technicians to retrain to keep up with the switchover. It doesn't require a qualified technician to do a 12-month apprenticeship to train. EV bootcamps are a key component within the training.

In the meantime vehicle technicians have decreased 30%, or 60,000, since 2019. We urge government to increase apprenticeship funding bands to account for rising costs - and create greater course availability.

Lorries, coaches and LGVs are vital economic enablers - and plugging skills gaps and building the foundations for a future workforce is essential. We need the next government to put in the building blocks to help us attract, train and retain staff we need to drive that growth.