HGV driver training company HGVC has urged the government to commit to further funding of the Skills Bootcamps in HGV Driving initiative, which currently is only funded until the end of this year, writes Carol Millett.
The company is warning that without the scheme, which has been operating since 2021, the shortage of HGV drivers will only get worse, undermining the improvements in numbers that it has delivered so far.
The 16-week Bootcamps in HGV Driving are flexible courses, which are are 90% funded for organisations with fewer than 250 employees, with employers paying the remaining 10% of the course cost. For larger employers, the Skills Bootcamps are 70% funded.
By the end of February 2025, 3,474 participants had successfully completed HGV driver training at an HGVC run Skills Bootcamp. Of these, 2,695 subsequently received job offers.
By the same date, 965 different companies had utilised HGVC’s Skills Bootcamps – of which 838 were SMEs and 127 Enterprise firms.
HGVC said these statistics underline the crucial role that the scheme played in tackling the chronic shortage of HGV drivers that the UK was facing in 2021.
In addition, it has attracted more diverse drivers – including younger trainees, women and people from ethnically diverse backgrounds, all of which have increased since the Skills Bootcamps were launched.
Almost 10% of applicants have come from women; nearly 25% from black, Asian and other ethnic minority groups; and around a third from drivers under the age of 36.
