Government launches ‘Generation Logistics’

The government has launched a campaign called ‘Generation Logistics’, which will be an industry-led recruitment and awareness campaign supported by the government to help address the skills shortage in the transport and logistics sector.

Why has the government launched the generation logistics campaign?

Logistics skills shortage

It has been recently publicised that there has been a transport and logistics skills shortage. In pre-pandemic times the transport and logistics sector relied heavily on skilled workers from overseas, particularly in countries within the EU. However, when the pandemic hit many of these skilled workers returned to their home countries resulting in a logistics skills gap. Furthermore, when the UK left the EU on 1st January 2021, immigration rules became more complex and when Covid-19 restrictions were relaxed, most skilled foreign workers chose not return to work in the UK. Therefore, this has led to a transport and logistics skills shortage that needs to be filled.

What is the aim of the ‘Generation Logistics’ campaign?

This campaign has been designed to promote careers in the transport and logistics industry by changing preconceived perceptions about the industry to attract a new diverse generation of homegrown talent to occupy vacancies across the logistics sector. The campaign will also be used to raise awareness about how important the logistics sector is to the UK economy as a whole. The ultimate aim of the campaign is to increase the amount of skilled logistics workers in the UK to reduce our reliance on overseas workers.

How will the ‘Generation Logistics’ campaign attract talent?

£345,000 will be invested in the campaign and will be used to produce online resources, learning materials, and job adverts, all designed to promote careers and awareness of the logistics sector.

When does the campaign launch?

The campaign launches on 31st July and you can find out more about the campaign via the generation logistics website.

Paul Wormald Transport partner at Hawsons provides his views on the campaign:

The shortage of skills within the transport and logistics sector has been well publicised in recent months. Recruitment into the industry was already proving challenging even before the double whammy of Brexit and Covid which served to exacerbate the situation. Whilst any initiative to attract new talent into the sector should be welcomed, one wonders just how far a proposed investment of £345,000 will actually go in improving matters. We have commented often in our observations on the sector that it is the backbone of the UK economy – without it, nothing works, and with this in mind we would suggest that more still should be done to raise the profile of transport and logistics as an attractive sector in which to work.

How can we help?

At Hawsons we have a dedicated team of transport and logistics accountants at our offices in Sheffield, Doncaster, and Northampton.

We act for a large number of clients in this sector across our three offices, ranging from hauliers to international couriers, and understand the challenges this dynamic sector faces.

Nearly every other commercial sector is reliant on the services transport and logistic businesses provide and, in many ways, this specialist sector is the linchpin for our country’s economy.

With our experience in the transport and logistics sector we are able to develop a close understanding of your business and, through active year round involvement, we can help you anticipate and deal with challenges quickly and effectively.