The British International Freight Association (BIFA), the trade association that represents UK freight forwarding and logistics companies, says that it welcomes the package of measures unveiled by the Chancellor of the Exchequer yesterday to scale up employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships.
Director general, Robert Keen says: “Whilst our members are currently rightly focused on significant business continuity issues, we welcome the additional funding.
“We are ready to help any of our members that are willing to capitalise on the funding being made available to either recruit apprentices; make traineeships available; or increase training for existing employees.”
As one of the largest providers of freight forwarding and Customs-related training courses, BIFA is currently delivering those courses via video conferencing, due to the Covid-19 crisis preventing face-to-face training.
Carl Hobbis, BIFA’s training development manager, says: “Having been actively involved in the creation of an International Freight Forwarding Specialist apprenticeship, BIFA has committed to promote its availability since it was introduced in 2018.
“We will continue to encourage employers and potential entrants to consider this apprenticeship as a route into the industry.
“There is a dedicated area of the BIFA website – apprentices.bifa.org – that can help both employers and potential recruits to better understand apprenticeship opportunities in the freight forwarding industry.”
Keen adds: “We will also be reminding our members, than in addition to the finance announced today, last month the government made available an additional £50 million to accelerate growth of the UK’s customs intermediary sector via training, with applications for the new funding being open since the start of this month.”
