The Association of Fleet Professionals (AFP) has reported fast-rising demand for training, as fleets upskill to meet challenges such as electrification.
It’s already delivered a “dramatic” rise in sessions through its Fleet Academy, with the number of training days sold in 2023 already surpassing last year’s total.
Paul Hollick, chair at the AFP, said the increase reflected 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 definite increase 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% – a decision which has been vindicated by a dramatic increase in training days and also delegates, which is very pleasing to see.”
The AFP also froze its training fees at the end of 2022 in line with the pressure on personal and business finances. Hollick said this had “also turned out to be very much the right choice. Good training should be attainable, in our opinion.”
The upsurge in interest means the association has already booked 190 days of training for this year – up significantly on the 161 across the whole of 2022 and putting it on course for some 300 training days by the end of 2023.
“It just shows how much interest exists across the fleet industry in this kind of upskilling,” added Hollick.
He also stressed that while the AFP Fleet Academy was an evolution of training delivered by the Institute of Car Fleet Management, it remained a relatively new endeavour and awareness of the courses it provided was increasing all the time.
“Given the progress made by the Fleet Academy since its launch in 2021, 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.”
AFP data also shows highly positive attendee feedback from its courses, scoring 4.9 out of 5.0 when measured on the likelihood of recommending them, along with trainer knowledge and guidance.
Courses available through the remainder of 2023 include the popular ‘Fleet Vehicle Management Strategic’, recommended for those with responsibility for managing a vehicle fleet. A new in-person cohort starts on 26 September and the course is also available in an online, distance-learning format, which can be started at any time.
The recently launched ‘Accelerate – Women’s Voices in Fleet’ course will run again on 10-11 October, while the next Fleet Vehicle Management Advanced course, aimed at those in senior roles who are leading teams that manage a vehicle fleet, will start in 2024.
Finally, two electric vehicle courses, ‘Making the Switch to Electric Vehicles’ and ‘Transition to eLCV’, are run on demand and can be held face-to-face or online.
More details can be found at www.theafp.co.uk.
