The Department for Business Innovation and Skills (BIS) is urging the industry to put forward a HGV driver apprenticeship bid under a fast-track system launched last week.

The call follows BIS’s decision in July to reject the logistics industry’s bid for an HGV driver apprenticeship under the government’s Trailblazer programme.

The BIS Trailblazer review panel took the view that it does not take 12 months to train an HGV driver, which is the necessary time to qualify for a Trailblazer apprenticeship.

However Colin Snape, former chairman of the industry group that put the bid together and HR manager at Nagel Langdons, said there was little appetite to submit another bid.

He said that a debriefing he attended with the Trailblazer team after the bid was rejected made it clear there was little, if any, chance that a second submission would be accepted, prompting him to resign as chairman.

A BIS spokesman insisted the opportunity for a Trailblazer HGV driver apprenticeship was available and could be granted within seven weeks of submission under new criteria, which allows submissions to be made on a monthly basis rather than twice a year.

The supply chain operatives apprenticeship did receive the greenlight though.

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