An initiative to attract new blood
into the forklift truck market,
through better opportunities and
apprenticeships, was announced at
the recent BITA (British Industrial
Truck Association) AGM.

BITA has committed to fund an
Industry Apprentice Manager to
work with colleges and other trade
associations to attract applicants to
apprenticeship schemes. The
announcement comes at a time
when the economic forecast for the
industry, presented at the AGM by
Oxford Economics, is strong, but the
age profile of the engineering sector
continues to increase.

BITA Board
member Bill
Goodwin, sales
director at
Jungheinrich UK,
is heading the
recruitment
initiative – the
Materials Handling Equipment
Apprenticeship Scheme. He says:
“We are committed to working with
schools, colleges and industry to
improve the opportunities available.

Our objective is to provide support
and a point of contact between
apprentices and operating companies.

“Excellent resources are already
available in the form of training
courses for MHE apprenticeships,
however, the principal issue for our
industry is take-up rates.We need to
see significant numbers joining our
sector to replace retiring employees if
we want to reverse our current
ageing profile.”