Skills shortage: Time to act

Addressing members at the UKWA’s recent AGM, Maguire said:  "The sector needs to recruit 900,000 individuals leading up to 2020 but nearly a fifth of vacancies in the transport and storage sector are classified as 'hard to fill' due to the lack of applicants with the required skills.

"The logistics industry needs to agree a course of action which will lead to a more focused and unified approach to the fundamental issue of training and developing our workforce in a consistent and progressive way. 

"At present, we do not have the cohesion in the sector to achieve this. Our larger companies have difficulty putting aside their competitive caps when addressing key industry issues. There are also historical, cultural and commercial barriers between some of our larger trade associations, which prevent a unified approach on these issues."