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Skills for Logistics has won a grant for research that seems unlikely to enlighten us. Sally Nash reports.
SKILLS FOR LOGISTICS has been awarded £100,000 for a research project to confirm what everyone in the industry already knows: the average face of logistics is white, middle-aged and male, The Department for Transportfunded project will investigate workforce diversity in terms of ethnicity, gender and age. It will also look into the current state of training in the private and public sectors and will investigate the barriers to recruitment and retention of a more diverse workforce, According to the Office of National Statistics only 0.4% of LGV drivers (driving trucks above 7.5 tonnes) are female, 1.6% are from ethnic minorities and 3.1% are under 25.
However, Skills for Logistics head of research Stephen Wells insists that the research will do more than simply confirm these findings: "There has been a lot of speculation as to why we've arrived at the position we're in [on the make-up of the workforce ] and our research will probably conlirm that speculation and then try to take it forward such as by looking at the barriers faced by women or ethnic minorities.
We will be putting together a tool-kit for employers to help them increase the diversity of their workforce and look at matching. jobs with particular ethnic or gender groups.