News

Skills For Logistics (SfL) is in danger of losing its £1m grant to encourage more women into the industry because of the slow uptake of Women & Work initiatives. SfL has a £1m grant to ensure women fill 575 driving positions and 500 warehousing positions, and another 200 women in middle management roles are mentored to achieve career progression - by March 2008.

However, so far just 100 women have completed the process to become drivers, while the uptake for warehousing positions is unclear,  as the initiative was only launched in the summer.

Heidi Boateng, Women & Work project manager at SfL, told delegates at the third Women In Transport conference last week: "We're in danger of losing the grant - it's available until March 2008. Because of the slow uptake, the money could go to another industry. If we don't get them [women applicants] signed up within the next month, it will be difficult for them to complete their qualifications in time [for the grant to pay out by the end of March]."

She added that failure to use the grant could also endanger SfL's future funding applications to the government. She is unsure of the reasons for the slow uptake: "I don't think there's any real resistance as such. Maybe it's not at the top of people's agendas. Perhaps it's the timing - the industry's at its busiest time of year."

The money for the Women & Work programme was allocated to sector skills councils last December Boateng joined SfL in January and the drivers  programme, Women Into Transport, was then launched just three months later in April. The third part of the overall initiative, the mentoring of women in middle management positions, has received "a lot of positive responses" so far from the companies Boateng has presented to.

In her conference presentation, she noted a lack of female managers - just 10% in transport/distribution and 14% in storage/warehousing. To find out more about SfL's Women & Work schemes, go to www.skillsforlogistics.org/en/index/programmes/waw/