Opinion
Why fleet management needs an apprenticeship
Paul Hollick, chair, Association of Fleet Professionals is advocating the introduction of an apprenticeship standard for fleet, something that they believe could potentially be a huge boost to the industry and help with formally professionalising roles within our sector.
H
ow did you become a fleet manager? The chances are you didn’t visit a careers adviser or job fair while you were still in education and find out about the role in that way. It’s also probable that you didn’t even consider becoming a fleet manager when you entered work and looked at the kind of positions for which your skills and preferences might have been suited.
No, you probably did what everyone else seems to do: edged slowly towards fleet management from one of two directions. Either you worked in a dealership, workshop or some other motor industry business, or you transitioned through a series of facilities, procurement or accounts positions. It seems to be very much the kind of role to which no one really aspires - maybe because they’re not aware of its existence - but which they often love once they are doing it.
This is a subject we’ve been discussing at the Association of Fleet Professionals. As the industry’s representative body, we would like to change this situation with jobs in fleet becoming promoted in a much more structured manner. We want more people to recognise what fleet management is, the corporate value it represents, the job satisfaction it brings – and ultimately, to want to work within our world. That’s why we’re advocating the introduction of an apprenticeship standard for fleet, something that we believe could potentially be a huge boost to the industry and help with formally professionalising roles within our sector.
The advantages of this would be numerous and obvious. While there are many highly skilled, experienced and capable fleet managers in our sector, supported by the structured training and qualifications available through the AFP Fleet Academy, ours is not a profession with anything resembling a recognised entry route. Having apprenticeships would change that immediately and provide a standardised career path into the fleet sector. In the future, especially as fleet managers continue to evolve into mobility specialists, an
apprenticeship could eventually sit alongside career choices in other corporate specialisms such as human resources and procurement, attracting a steady stream of talented and motivated individuals as well as a higher level of recognition for our role both within the organisations for which we work and across industry as a whole.
We’ve been investigating the process involved in the creation of an apprenticeship standard and our key finding is simply that the size of the task and degree of industry support required should not be underestimated. There are many steps involved and a number of them are not necessarily straightforward. It is a process designed to prove genuine industry need for an apprenticeship standard and to show a high level of sector commitment.
is a good idea and secondly, to gauge their level of enthusiasm and commitment. If there is sufficient momentum the next step would probably be the formation of some kind of working body to take the industry through the apprenticeship creation process.
At the AFP, we believe that we have the energy and commitment to support employers to drive this project forward but the creation of a vehicle fleet apprenticeship programme would require widespread industry commitment to ensure its success. We would love to hear from you with your thoughts and observations before we consider our next move.
Below:
AFP chair Paul Hollick is asking if there is industry support for the creation of an apprenticeship scheme for fleet management.
“The advantages of this would be numerous and obvious.”
Crucially, a key part in receiving approval for an official apprenticeship standard requires the obligation for a number of companies to take on apprentices in the early days of the scheme. This requires the creation of what is referred to as a ‘trailblazing group’ of 10-20 experienced fleet employers who would be instrumental in helping to develop the apprenticeship standard and to employ apprentices in its first year. It is very much a question of employers putting their money where their mouths are, and there would need to be a cohort of businesses willing to both create jobs and put in place all of the support resources and mechanisms that new apprentices need.
With all of this in mind, what we really need now is to hear feedback from across the sector to find out firstly, whether people think this
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