Seren Jones is hitting the road and flying the flag for female truck drivers everywhere thanks to the support of NPTC Group of Colleges and Gatewen Training Services.
The 21-year-old from Wrexham is now a fully-fledged qualified HGV driver, joining the ranks of an estimated 300,000 in the UK, of which less than three percent are females.
With the shortage of truck drivers, disrupted supply chains and empty shelves in supermarkets, the Welsh Government, in hand with several colleges and training providers has been making serious in roads to address the situation and trying to attract more women into the role, which is seen as a traditionally male dominated profession.
Seren, who is a single mum, is working towards building a new career and hoping to play her part in helping to redress the imbalance. The fluent Welsh speaker was previously employed building electronic calibration encoders but always dreamt of driving as a career.
Having seen the reports of driver shortage in the UK, Seren thought it would be a career she would love to pursue, but admits she was initially put off by the costs involved in training to become a qualified driver and childcare. But through the Welsh Government’s Personal Learning Account (PLA) initiative, Seren is now in the driving seat.
“I was fortunate enough to be pointed in the direction of Wrexham based Gatewen Training Services, who informed me that, in partnership with NPTC Group of Colleges, they had access to Welsh Government funding that could cover all my training costs. Once I had passed all the eligibility tests, I signed on the dotted line there and then.”
Seren added: “I have always been charmed by the call of the open road, and always thought I would like my future career to involve some aspect of driving, but never in my wildest dream did I imagine that one day I would be climbing behind the wheel of a 44- tonne lorry.”
NPTC Group of Colleges has already helped almost 4,000 people through PLA including 195 specifically in the logistics sector.
Julian Hughes, MD at Gatewen said more could be done via recruitment campaigns to encourage more women like Seren to become HGV driver such as offering permanent contracts with no evening or weekend working.
“Most uniquely there are no gender pay gaps. Men and women are paid equally – something that’s very rare in a lot of other industries,” he added.
Seren commented: “Companies and recruiters could be more proactive in using women in recruitment adverts and should be taking additional steps to highlight support with childcare, flexible working patterns – and more general wellbeing, which might not always have been associate with traditional HGV driver adverts in the past. Anything that challenges unhelpful stereotypes on the types of people that can become drivers and what their backgrounds has to be a positive thing.”
Jeremy Miles, the Minister for Education and Welsh Language, said: “Not everyone finds the right career right away, which is why it’s important everyone has the opportunity to re-skill. Seren is a great example of how, with the right passion and drive, you can change career to find the one that’s right for you. Our Personal Learning Accounts provides excellent opportunities for people on lower incomes to re-train to find the right career for them. I would encourage anyone who’s thinking of changing career, to learn new skills and potentially increase your income, to contact Working Wales or your local further education college to see what Personal Learning Account courses are available.”
