Assist Resourcing Group and its national logistics training business, System Training, has opened a new driver training and test centre in Widnes to help meet the transport and logistics industry’s urgent need for trained drivers.
The Widnes Business Park facility which was formally opened on Wednesday 18th November consists of a suite of 3 specially designed classrooms, an outside manoeuvring area, a fleet of LGV training vehicles as well as a team of experienced instructors enabling candidates to gain the required skills, experience and certifications for a career in driving commercial vehicles of all sizes.
The centre is also a DVSA approved test centre where individuals will be able to undertake training and take their LGV driving test as an integrated package thus helping relieve the current bottleneck on test availability.
This investment by Assist greatly increases its capability to grow its own driver pool and offer more professionally trained LGV drivers to its customers.
System Training is running a number of specially designed programmes to train people to become LGV drivers. These programmes include its ‘Warehouse to Wheels’ scheme, which aims to train more than 100 warehouse staff a year to become drivers.
The new ‘Driving Ambition’ programme will also be available, opening up more opportunities for local unemployed people to re-train as part of an intensive eight week course to be ready for work as drivers.
In addition System Training working in partnership with a number of employers provides a young persons Driving Goods Vehicle apprenticeship programme that enables a young person over a 12 month period to acquire their LGV licence and be trained and gain experience of being a professional driver thus helping to address the ageing demographic of the current workforce.
Dave Dargan, CEO of the Assist Resourcing Group said the company is investing to provide the skilled drivers that Britain’s transport industry needs.
He said: "Our new Widnes centre will provide a springboard for the enhanced delivery of our driver services to regional and national businesses / organisations. With a growing team of experts and the inclusion of additional training capacity, we are playing our part in driving up standards and addressing the national driver shortage.”
The Assist Resourcing Group is one of the country’s top staffing and recruitment businesses providing both temporary and permanent staffing solutions for employers in the logistics, retail and manufacturing sectors.
Its training arm System Training is one of the UK's leading logistics training providers. It works with logistics and utility companies, military and government departments, local authorities, national corporations and small businesses as well as the self-employed.