Training
noun
the action of teaching a person or animal a particular skill or type of behaviour.
Ah the word training often associated with the words expensive, time consuming, confusing and headache! You’re not alone in thinking this way however, despite our own opinions towards it, continuous training is something that is now common place across every industry.
Being a commercial driver is no longer seen as a ‘anyone can do it’ industry and instead it’s now internationally recognised as a professional role and with that has come the need for continuous professional development of our drivers.
I personally think this is a great move for the industry and I’m proud to see our drivers recognised for the hard work they do, it is however, our responsibility as employers to help drivers maintain this professional standard and provide them with opportunities for continuous development.
Now lots of people at this point will stop reading, why? Because they disagree with the fact the onus should be put on them to aid in the continuous development of drivers and that’s fine, this article is not for those people. This article is for those employers who understand and see the benefit in having a workforce that is up-to-date with legislation, updated skills and best practices. If this is you then read on……
So let me get to the point! There is solution which will enable you to upskill your drivers without the huge expense of traditional training and without the need for you to release drivers to attend classroom based training sessions. I would like to introduce you to online training for companies.
Please don’t be put off by the fact the training is online, your drivers will still gain the same level of understanding as they would by attending a session because all our students get full support from our team (which means trainers) for the duration they have access to the course, which is one whole year!
The benefits for you as an employer
No downtime – drivers do not need to take time off work to attend training. They can complete the training online when it suits them 24 hours a day, 7 days per week
Less expense – Our online courses start from £10 including VAT.
Less administration – we’ll send you progress reports for your staff meaning you can see who has completed the course, who has yet to finish
Certificated – We issue completion certificates to all those who complete the course online. These can be saved and printed to keep on the drivers file
Legislation updates – as new legislation is announced it will be added to the course and your drivers will be informed
1 Year course access – All students get access to the course for one whole year
Instant access – As soon as your employees are signed up they can get access to the course and get started
Progress reporting – we’ll send you a weekly progress report on your employees so you can see at a glance the progress your staff are making and if they’ve completed the course
Shows compliance – Prove to the DVSA and traffic commissioner that you are professional organisation who regularly upskills their workforce to maintain compliance
Maintain compliance – Ensure your drivers are up to date with the latest legislation, their legal requirements and have a full understanding of how to carry out their duties in a safe, legal and effective way in order to maintain compliance.
Bespoke courses available – We can create bespoke online courses for your company to ensure your workforce are working not only within the law but in line with your company procedures.
The choice
We are constantly developing new courses for our online learning centre with new courses being added on an almost monthly basis so the choice on which course to pick will always grow. The titles we have at present are listed below.
How to get involved
We ask that companies contact us to obtain a special link to complete checkout. This link means we can put all your employees into one group for easy reporting and it also allows us to offer you bundles of courses at special rates where applicable and tailor your experience.
If you are a business that is looking to purchase more than one course or sign up more than one employee then please contact us on 01406 424500 to speak to our friendly team.
I often compare the role of a professional driver to that of a pilot, my reasoning? Well both are in charge of huge vehicles and the safety of the load, the difference is the pilot is subjected to a tremendous amount of training on an annual basis however, until recently the driver had not had to do anything more than pass an initial test. This always baffled me since the driver was in an equally challenging role, in fact in some cases more so, as the driver has to deal with the general public on public highways whereas the pilot doesn’t have that same worry.
A pilot would not be put in a plane and waved on his own way without a second thought so why would we accept this for our professional drivers?! Continuous professional development is something all drivers should partake in not only for safety reasons but also to stay abreast with current legislation and best practice across the industry.