Training for the future

There can’t be a recovery company that in the last three years has not been affected by the recession and a number of well-known and well run companies have not survived.

Directors all over the country have been deliberating and losing sleep, and probably hair, over their management accounts to determine where best to make savings and shave off costs - a little here and a little there.

One sector of the budget many companies, not just recovery, look to reduce in times of financial strain is training. It is sometimes regarded as a necessary evil due to being a requirement for some contracts or quality management systems but some believe that reducing the training budget can save a company money.

One way companies may look to reduce their training budget is by accepting, or seeking out, inferior quality training, on these occasions the National Training Scheme (NTS) is not used.  When Instructors outside of the National Training Scheme are used standards may not be checked and money may be wasted providing training that falls way below the accepted norm, and certainly below what is expected by IVR (UK), the Administrator for the National Training Scheme.

Two recent Instructor refresher courses, and a programme of random audits on Instructors, have shown that a continual programme of support and auditing against standards is required to ensure the quality of training offered by training providers remains high.

Employees that are trained correctly are more efficient, feel valued and are more productive, which in these times is exactly what is needed - companies cannot afford time wasters or an inefficient workforce. Technicians that are trained correctly are shown to cause less damage to equipment and vehicles, which is vital when budgets cannot tolerate high volumes of equipment replacement - everything has to last longer while remaining safe and complying with legislation.

In times when some contracts are becoming even more difficult to make a working profit from, and some are going to a smaller number of operators, everyone  needs to plan, whatever size of company you are,  for when the recession does finally end. A dedicated and well trained workforce will ensure your company is strong, ready and future proof.

So think very carefully before cutting your training budget.

For more information regarding the National Training Scheme please go to  www.theivrgroup.org or call either the IVR office on 01895 436426 or Terry Crampton on

To date, over 30,000 certificates have been issued against the new training modules, with over 11,000 registrations to the scheme.  This is not just for the Highways Agency, companies are seeing a real benefit to the National Training Scheme and the high standards of training it provides, even with its very vocal critics. Organisations outside of the recovery sector see the benefits and commercial vehicle manufacturers, tyre companies and bus companies are just some of those that use the standards of the National Training Scheme to ensure their employees are well trained and more importantly are safer in the job role that they carry out.