Taxi Driver Online

Taxi course offers route into work

07 July 2010

A new drive is under way to recruit Northumberland taxi drivers.

The Taxi Driver Route Way programme aims to help unemployed people access jobs as taxi and private hire drivers across the county.

The initiative, which includes vacancies in the Morpeth area, pulls together funding and expertise from a number of employment and training organisations, as well as local businesses and people who work in the field.

Northumberland College provides the training, the North East Employer Coalition co-ordinates the programme, as well as contributing funding, while Jobcentre Plus puts forward suitable participants.

Employment advice company A4E has also joined the partnership to offer ongoing support while clients apply for their taxi licences.

The course includes a BTEC qualification, a test in area specific general knowledge and help with necessary documentation, such as Criminal Records Bureau (CRB) checks.

Participants will be trained in health and safety, customer service, disability awareness and legal issues, offering benefits for both drivers and passengers.

And there is also an extra helping hand into work as people who successfully complete the programme are guaranteed an interview with a local taxi company.

Northumberland College Trainer Rod Russell said: "Since the coalition partnership started running this programme a few years ago it has continued to be successful and we are delighted to be able to roll it out in the Northumberland area now.

"We know from our research that there are vacant positions for taxi drivers in the North East and this programme allows us to help meet the needs of employers, as well as the unemployed."

The scheme was first piloted in Whitley Bay in 2006 and was such a success that it was later rolled out to Teesside, Sunderland and Durham, helping more than 70 people into work.

It is considered an example of best practice, providing jobs for unemployed people and ensuring local companies have highly trained drivers, which they may not have been able to fund on their own.

The reputation of the scheme is even attracting interest further afield and the National Taxi Academy is planning to replicate it nationwide.

The coalition hopes to continue to provide further Back to Work taxi driver programmes in the region in the future.

For details contact Northumberland College at www.northumberland.ac.uk or call 01670 841200.

Source; http://www.morpethherald.co.uk/news/Tax ... 6395031.jp

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

As if we don't have enough drivers in the trade already!!

Now all the unemployed can join & make it an even more worthless job!!

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

I'd not worry to much, By the time this government starts wielding the mighty cost cutting scalpel there will be no money left in the pot to pay for it...

CRB checks take 3 months, hardly a "fast track" to a job is it...

What a waste of f*cking money.

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

So once they've done their Btec when do they go on to get HIGHLY trained?

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

I think what they mean by highly trained drivers is that they do their courses on the fifteenth floor at college!!

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

Oh well that makes all the difference

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

It would make all the difference if Ph was used as a kind of place where people start off.......a place for getting to know the rules and generally being retarded.

They could then shake off their retardedness and become proper cab drivers.

I suppose thats controversial.

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Or not shake off their retardedness & still become cab drivers, as the case may be!!

_________________
Kind regards,

Brummie Cabbie.

Type a message, post your news,
Disagree with other members' views;
But please, do have some decorum,
When debating on the TDO Forum.

It's a sure fire way to earn you a slap if you weren't so bloody far away

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

I am sure Dundee council are using the taxi trade to keep down unemployment in the city.That's the only reason why i can think they would give a badge to someone who has 11 points on his licence or someone who has a recent drug conviction

I'm pretty sure the government has been using the taxi trade as care in the community for the past few years.

CC

_________________
Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Perhaps they're taking the same apathetic attitude towards the trade as the people that actually work in it

_________________
Note to self: Just because it pops into my head does NOT mean it should come out of my mouth!!