Why training is gaining traction among fleet managers

By Paul Hollick, chair, Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP)

One of the most pleasing things we’ve seen this year at the Association of Fleet Professionals is a strong rise in the amount of training we deliver.

Using our preferred metric, the number of training days sold in 2023 has already surpassed last year’s total.

It’s an increase that reflects several trends including higher interest in formal training among fleet industry professionals and a general post-pandemic move across the workforce to enhance levels of qualification.

During 2021 and 2022, we saw a jump in fleet managers looking to upskill to meet current and future fleet challenges such as electrification, so we increased our potential capacity for places this year by 85%. This decision has been vindicated.

Last year, we delivered 161 training days in total and by July this year, we had already sold 190, meaning that we could be close to 300 by the end of 2023. The number of delegates has also risen.

It just shows how much interest exists across the fleet sector in this kind of upskilling.

There is clear potential for further growth, we believe. The AFP Fleet Academy, although an evolution of training delivered by the Institute of Car Fleet Management, remains a relatively new endeavour and awareness of the courses it provides is increasing all the time.

It seems to us that there is potentially a huge amount of untapped interest in training across the fleet sector that will be realised as more people learn about the services we deliver.

Also, satisfaction is high, with our courses scoring 4.9 out of 5.0 when measured on the likelihood of recommending the course, trainer knowledge and guidance.

We’ve also worked to increase the scope of our training. Alongside established courses aimed at beginners new to fleet management through to those designed for highly experienced people in the industry, we’ve also introduced training on electric cars and vans, and to help women in fleet make their voices heard in a corporate environment. More plans are in the pipeline.

To us, all of this activity is important for the ongoing professionalisation of fleet management and sits alongside other initiatives in which we are involved, including the mooted fleet apprenticeship.

What our industry has arguably lacked in the past is a clear pathway for entry and ongoing personal development, but that situation is changing.

What we would like to see in the future is for those recruiting fleet managers to have a much-improved level of appreciation of the training that we offer, creating a feedback loop so that fleet managers can see in career terms the advantages of continuing to upskill.

There are some signs that this is starting to happen and the increased interest we are seeing in training is, we believe, a sign of this virtuous circle starting to take shape.