RTS: Constructing the road to success
The Te ara ki tua Road to success traineeship programme is designed to help the industry with the key challenge of recruiting new and inexperienced people into road transport
"The road to success is always under construction," famously said legendary American comedian Lily Tomlin, and when I consider the journey our industry is embarking on through RTF’s new Te ara ki tua Road to success programme, never a truer word has been spoken.
Like the highways our drivers travel every day, success in this or any industry requires constant improvement, hard work, and maintenance to ensure a smooth journey.
The Te ara ki tua Road to success traineeship programme is specifically designed to help our industry with the key challenge of recruiting new and inexperienced people into road transport. It’s not a silver bullet but if it can be combined with an ongoing commitment to training and career progression, the programme can go some way to alleviate the acute workforce shortages in our industry.
Te ara ki tua Road to success works by matching job seekers to job openings with road transport operators and helps them develop individual career pathways that will encourage longevity in the industry. It also aims to provide operators with the support they need to feel confident taking on new and inexperienced staff.
The programme combines on-the-job practical training with theoretical work, hopefully leading to long-term employment prospects. It’s designed to be flexible and relevant to the variety of career pathways employees may seek to follow in our industry.
Training largely takes place while a trainee is on the job, with approved assessors providing practical training and overseeing online learning towards NZQA-approved micro-credentials specifically developed for road transport. Importantly, trainees will be guaranteed a minimum of 40 hours per week of work at, or above, the living wage.
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Te ara ki tua Road to success project coordinator Fiona McDonagh and project administrator Caleb Rapson Nuñez del Prado
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While Te ara ki tua Road to success has been a long time in the development, it’s exciting to see our first trainee and operator recently start on the programme. Working with a fantastically supportive transport operator in Central Otago, our first trainee is already getting to grips with the industry and has begun their online learning component.
Looking forward, it’s encouraging to see both the growing interest from operators as they realise what the programme offers them and an ever-increasing pool of potential trainees.
Working with the Ministry of Social Development and contacts at the Kiwi Can Do partnership, RTF puts applicants through a short selection process, with a view to having many of them placed in a new career within a month.
Project administrator Caleb Rapson Nuñez del Prado and I have been busy making contacts and building relationships with external partners so we can help support both operators and trainees through the programme.
Caleb recently completed and passed the first online micro-credential (Introduction to Commercial Road Transport) himself to test out and see what the online portion of the course was like. This means he can now provide those doing the training with first-hand knowledge and support as they work through this important first step.
Construction of a dedicated Te ara ki tua Road to success website is well underway, and we’re looking forward to the official launch of the programme in early March. Our aim is to keep the industry informed of the programme’s progress through regular columns, so watch this space.
If you need any information, please contact Road to success project administrator Caleb Rapson Nuñez del Prado on 04 471 8283 or email caleb@rtf.nz.
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