Success of HGV driver training scheme revealed as funding plug pulled

The training firm described the initiative as “an overwhelming success”.

The bootcamps were launched by the Department for Education (DfE) in 2021, and centralised funding for the initiative ended this year.

Insite was the largest provider of the camps for businesses; over 1,100 UK organisations trained drivers through them and more than half of the trainees accessed training through a co-funded route.

For employers with fewer than 250 employees, skills bootcamps were 90% funded by the DfE, with employers paying the remaining 10% of the course cost. For larger employers, places were 70% funded.

With 2025 marking the final year of centralised skills bootcamp funding, Insite CEO James Clifford said: “The skills bootcamps were an overwhelming success.

“They supported thousands of businesses and individuals. However, the landscape of logistics training is changing.

“Since 2021, when DfE funding for skills bootcamps started, we have seen a dramatic shift in the way that businesses manage the logistical headache of large-scale training. We have found growing demand from businesses for more support.

“Increasingly complex supply chains are making it difficult for businesses to coordinate training across multiple locations, leading to periods of inactivity that reduce productivity and cost money.

“The economy is simply too challenging for businesses to absorb this. Without subsidised training, firms are having to find other ways to improve their training processes.”

Insite added that it had launched an expanded training service in response to this need and it also now provided fully managed warehouse training, including forklift driver training, introduction to warehousing and construction training.

The RHA has demanded the reinstatement of the bootcamps after research showed 60,000 drivers needed to be trained each year for the next five years to meet demand and support growth.