Career Academies UK has been awarded a £50,000 pot of funding to help launch five new UK logistics academies.
The funding has been provided by independent education charity the Edge Foundation, which praised Careers Academies for "fantastic work raising awareness of the many paths of success" in the logistics sector.
The UK's first Logistics Career Academy at West Derby School in Liverpool is due to take its first intake of students this September, and has received strong backing from local haulage firms wanting to get involved - such as Abbey Logistics, AK Worthington and Bibby International.
Employer engagement is a key element of the programme - developed to help prepare young people start a career in logistics - with operators taking part in master classes, mentoring, providing workplace visits and an official internship.
Ian Nichol, national STEM (Science Technology Engineering Maths) development manager at Career Acadmies UK, told MT that potential locations being explored for new logistics academies include Teesside, Daventry, London, GreaterManchester, Humberside, Southampton and Glasgow. "We will want the new centres to be up and running in 2015 and recruiting students in September 2015," he added.
Anne Spackman, executive director, Career Academies UK, said: “This grant from the Edge Foundation will help us to develop a new strand of work in a fast-growing but little understood sector.
"Our students are looking for apprenticeships, jobs and careers; logistics companies across the UK are actively seeking young people to fill 750,000 new vacancies by 2017. This project puts them together in a tried and tested programme."