For years, those of us working in logistics have complained that young people simply do not hear enough about our sector. People laugh about how they “fell” into logistics. But it’s no joke.
Warehousing employs over three quarters of a million people across the UK and offers a huge range of career opportunities. Yet logistics is still largely invisible when teenagers are making decisions about education and work.
Perhaps devolution could help change that.
From regional mayor to Prime Minister is not a unique career path. Boris Johnson did it first; now Andy Burnham has followed him. But there is one rather important difference. Boris came to Downing Street from the capital. Burnham has spent nearly a decade arguing that the capital has too much power in the first place.
It is in this context that Burnham’s new Government plans to give regional mayors much greater influence over technical and vocational education from the age of 16, including control over 16–19 funding. The intention is to allow local leaders to shape skills provision around the needs of their own labour markets rather than relying entirely on decisions made in Westminster.
For warehousing, this could be a very significant development.
Our industry is certainly not London-centric. Warehouses sit at the heart of regional economies from the Midlands and North West to the Thames Estuary, Yorkshire, Scotland and beyond. In many of these areas, logistics is a major employer, yet the education and careers system does not always reflect that reality.
At the same time, the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEETs) remains a serious concern. Warehousing cannot solve that problem on its own, of course, but we should certainly be part of the solution.
Our sector offers something particularly valuable: accessible entry points combined with genuine opportunities to progress. Someone might begin on the warehouse floor and move into team leadership, systems, engineering, health and safety or senior operations. Increasingly, warehouse automation is creating new technical roles requiring high-level skills in engineering, robotics and digitalisation.
The difficulty, however, is getting young people through the door in the first place.
That is why UKWA has been arguing for logistics and supply chain to feature prominently within the Government’s proposed new V Levels for 16–19 year-olds. UKWA have now been invited to join the working group developing those qualifications, giving us an important opportunity to ensure that V-Levels are designed to meet employer needs.
Devolution could make that conversation much more practical. If mayors, colleges and employers in logistics-heavy regions are empowered to work together, training can be designed to address local skills requirements and fill local jobs.
Employers will need to play their part too, offering work experience, apprenticeships and visible career pathways.
For decades, logistics has suffered from being everywhere in the economy but almost nowhere in the careers conversation. Giving regions more control over skills could finally help change that.
Clare Bottle
UKWA, CEO
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