Having carried out Driver Certificate of Professional Competence (Driver CPC) training from the start, Data Academy can now proudly claim its place among the first training providers to gain the Standard of Excellence Driver CPC.
Since 2005, the Leicester-based company has trained individuals for LGV/HGV and B+E licensing – covering all classes. Professional services are offered to all who seek the knowledge to drive safely and confidently on the roads. Data Academy uses its own classrooms to teach theory and hazard perception courses as well as Driver CPC and ADR (Dangerous Goods) courses. Counterbalance and reach forklift truck training is also covered in the training provider’s own indoor school with its real life racking.
Skills for Logistics recently introduced the Standard of Excellence Driver CPC in response to a need voiced by employers and providers to showcase excellent training provision.
The Standard’s aim is to recognise and celebrate providers who consistently deliver high quality training and provide a mechanism to help employers locate and access this excellent training provision. It has been developed by Skills for Logistics following extensive consultation with key logistics employers. They identified five key metrics based on high-quality training and business benefit: trainer quality; course preparation and delivery; learning resources and environment; pre-and post-training delivery and a commitment to excellence.
Last year Data Academy provided around 3000 individuals with Driver CPC training. The majority of classes are held in the training provider’s dedicated, fully equipped on-site training room, which has a capacity for a class of 20 trainees.
Data Academy is a company with excellence at its core – we speak to Eddie Barrie, its Business Development Manager, about the Standard of Excellence Driver CPC.
What makes Data Academy excellent?
“I think that the standard of instructor and how well they engage the candidates on the course is vital. If the instructor is simply reading from a power point presentation and that’s all they are doing then it will offer little value, as trainees can just as easily read the presentation themselves. Trainers should know their presentation inside out. Rather than just read from the slide, they should draw on their own knowledge and experience as a truck driver. This is particularly important because a trainer delivering a lesson who has never driven a truck will not have the respect of the candidates and will lose the class the moment it begins.”
Why apply for the Standard of Excellence?
“At Data Academy we think that we are better than anyone else, of course, and we want to show this. We are already dealing with several national clients and blue chip organisations will only deal with you if you have this kind of endorsement. Given that big employers want to see the Standard, it is now an important element in our marketing. Furthermore, when you gain something like the Standard of Excellence, you can apply the principles that earned the endorsement across everything else that you do.”
How was the process?
It was a very easy process: the assessor sat in on one of our courses and we submitted the relevant paperwork.
How will you be using the endorsement?
“The Standard of Excellence will be on our web site. Our current clients will know that we have it but for any new clients, the Standard is an additional marketing tool to help us convey just how good we are at Driver CPC training. Although we are a relatively small operation based in Leicester we have national clients who want to deal with us so we are looking to put a network together for licence acquisition across the country. Partners will have to attain our standards to be part of that network.”
Do you think the Standard of Excellence is a good idea?
“I think it is. If you are running a course it must be registered with JAUPT, but while JAUPT recognises you as being legal, Skills for Logistics endorse you as being excellent. Everybody should be striving for the Standard, particularly if you wish to work with blue chip clients – that’s where it will make a real difference.”
