Transport employment and skills taskforce

The transport employment and skills taskforce (TEST) is a partnership between industry and government.

The aims are to:

  • lead the charge on promoting careers across the transport sector
  • create opportunities for the next generation of talent
  • improve diversity in the workplace by looking at innovative ways of encouraging people from underrepresented communities to come into the industry

Chair

Rachel Skinner CBE, Executive Director, WSP

Members

  • Jo Binstead, Head of Education and Skills, Siemens Mobility UK Limited
  • Sonya Byers, CEO, Women in Transport
  • Michelle Elliott, Head of Resourcing, Diversity, Equity, Inclusion & Community, Virgin Atlantic
  • Sophie Green, HR Vice President, DHL
  • Sarah Kenny OBE, CEO, Maritime UK
  • Gavin Leathem, Group HR Director, First Group
  • Natalie Penrose, Head of Legacy, HS2 Ltd
  • Neil Robertson, CEO, National Skills Academy for Rail
  • Elliot Shaw, Chief Customer and Strategy Officer, National Highways
  • Karen Spencer MBE, Principal and Chief Executive Officer, Harlow College and Stansted Airport College

Terms of reference

Purpose

TEST is a group made up of skills and employment experts from across the transport industry. They will work with the Department for Transport to provide recommendations that support the creation of a diverse, skilled workforce that is able to adapt to future transport needs. It will do this by focusing on 5 interrelated themes of:

  • preparing for future skills
  • improving training and employment
  • promoting careers in transport
  • bosting diversity, inclusion and social mobility
  • building evidence and evaluating progress

Role and Remit

The Taskforce will provide evidence-based recommendations on skills and labour market issues that address current and future challenges by:

  • developing a greater understanding of future skills demands to ensure that employers are ready, particularly in the context of rapid change
  • identifying barriers and developing an integrated approach to reduce the industry’s diversity and inclusion challenges
  • working with stakeholders to make projections of the industry future training needs
  • understanding current perceptions of the industry and finding ways to improve and increasing efforts to promote careers across transport

  • mapping routes into training and employment in the transport sector, identifying barriers and opportunities to overcome them while aligning with technical education reform

  • helping to improve the evidence base for these goals to measure and evaluate progress​.

Press releases and government publications

Government publishes Transport Labour Market and Skills: Call for Views & Ideas (published 7 Feb 2022).

Call for transport leaders to help ‘super-charge’ skills and build future workforce (published 7 Feb 2022).

Contact details

transportlabourmarketandskills@dft.gov.uk

Contents