The following pages contain a potted history of Camelot

Also availanle:-

Mission of Camelot

Camelot

Awards Gained & Audits

The Company History

Camelot Courier Training was established more than a decade ago in response to a severe shortage of professionally trained motorcycle couriers at work in the London area. Research demonstrated that anyone with a motorcycle wishing to become a courier could join a company in a sector that was under staffed and urgently needed more people. New employees would learn ‘on the job’, which could take as much as two years (and this of course impacted on earning capacity). Further, it was found that some 70% of people joining the industry in this way left within one month of starting, causing not only replacement recruitment and lost opportunity costs for the employer, but frustration and loss of income to would-be couriers.

Employers needed to be able to offer high quality standards of service to their customers in what is an increasingly competitive marketplace, with some 10,000 couriers working for 500 courier companies in the London region.

The managing director of Camelot, Carl Lomas, recognised that offering would-be couriers a professional designed and delivered programme of training would enhance their prospects of obtaining employment, and potentially increase safety standards. With government funding this would provide job opportunities to the unemployed.

Having identified the skills the sector needed, Camelot was then able to develop a programme of competency training to meet these needs.

Links were established in 1992 with CILNTEC (City and Inner London North TEC), who both provided a grant for training some of the candidates, and acted as a source of referral to would-be couriers.

As the scheme showed high job outcome success, funding from other London TECs became available. West London TEC, North London TEC, and CENTEC (to become FOCUS Central London) have all helped support the scheme. Camelot has become an Employment service approved training provider and gives places to today’s candidates in New deal under 25 and 25+ through FTET LOT schemes with Jobcenterplus.

Many companies in the courier sector recognised that they would clearly benefit from a successful outcome of Camelot’s initiative, and thus were supportive of the project providing motorcycle insurance, radios and bike hire, but in particular by guaranteeing jobs for successful trainees.

The scheme began with a pilot in 1992 and was underpinned by the input of speakers from courier companies on associated topics such as sales, administration and customer skills. A customised 105 page booklet ‘The Beginners Guide to Despatch Riding’ was written specifically to accompany the course. Trainers who were substantially experienced in motorcycling courier work themselves and also had training skills were drawn from staff of the courier companies, and the ratio of trainers to trainees was one to three for most of the course content. Such was the success of the 1992 pilot that CILNTEC gave a larger grant for 1993 and the program began to role out to greater numbers of candidates.

Outcomes during the 1994 program were that of 142 trainees who started, 127 (ie almost 90%) got a job on completion. With this evidence and a wish to further enhance the training offered, Camelot approached RSA Awarding body with a request to develop a new NVQ Level 2 in Motorcycle Courier skills. Working with lead body and NTO the Road Haulage and Distribution Council, and with the input of various courier companies on working parties, this was agreed, and the new qualification was developed based on the existing Camelot Training Programme, and came on stream in early 1995.

Numbers of candidates increased during 1996 and 97 but at no loss to quality. Camelot came second in the Training for Work League Table set by Central London TEC. Camelot maintained a high score of job outcomes at 85% and also now successfully delivering NVQ’s with 75% of starters leaving the course with a level 2. Camelot Training moved in 1996 to larger and more customised premises in the City. Access from public transport became better allowing travel support to candidates to cover expenses as far as zone 6 tube travel. Design and development of documentation has continues through to the present day to the position of many in-house booklets and documents supported by detailed test Camelot papers which complement the NVQ and needs of the courier industry.

1998 brought the first New Deal under 25 candidates through the REED New Deal program in Hackney & City. Camelot was the first REED full time training option provider to place a candidate (Ricky Simms) through the New Deal scheme into a job.

A web site began development in late 1998 explaining both the training program and courier industry; it began at www.couriertraining.co.uk. Promoted through general mailing it has become an excellent medium to pass more detailed course information to the outside world. Working closely with industry the site opened a courier news section in 2000 and took on a new address at www.couriertraining.com The site today is supported by editorial from many courier companies. This in turn attracts more visitors and more industry interest in the training Camelot provides.

An ongoing program of staff training has added formal training, assessment and health & safety qualifications to the existing and detailed courier skills which the team has. Tutors are typically recruited from the courier industry with an educational background. The educational qualifications are then supported and this has resulted in a highly qualified education team at Camelot which has a wealth of industry knowledge.

1999 brought recognition for the Investors in People standard and the first Training Standards Council audit to Camelot. Exemplary scores of excellence were achieved in the training sector and good grade twos in all other areas. This resulted in Camelot being listed in the TSC annual report of 2000 as one of the top 17 training providers in the country. Camelot was delighted to be involved in the 2000 AGM of the TSC as a showcase provider delivering excellent training.

Unemployment levels continued to fall. Candidate numbers during 1999-2001 remained steady but have been harder to sustain. The 2000-2001 year saw a new move to basic employability candidates in a bid to help those in need of more help.

A contract with NLTEC for New Deal under 25 began in 2000 and was passed to the employment Service under pilot for 2001.

This left Camelot as one of the very early under 25 New deal ES providers. Job outcomes for the under 25 candidates were again an excellent success story with almost ninety per cent of candidate starts going in to full time employment. Many of those achieved the very NVQ Camelot had set about developing those years earlier.

2001 saw the end of the TECs as funding emphasis changed to the LSC and direct contracts with the Employment Service. Candidate eligibility was targeted at the longer term unemployed. Camelot achieved an ES approved provider status in the first round and was successful in gaining contracts to deliver training programmes for the New Deal 25+ candidates from the beginning.

With the 2002 April launch of Jobcentre Plus Camelot in their tenth year were delighted to be providing twenty week courier training courses to districts across the whole London and South East Region for candidates from eighteen to sixty five years of age. Unemployment levels were at their lowest in ten years.

With the move from TEC contracts through ES to Job Centre Plus the course had evolved from thirteen weeks to twenty but job outcome success fell. It was possible from year on year data to recognise assessment grades and pastoral support was growing but individual candidates needed more help. They were longer term unemployed and had more life problem needs. The average previous unemployment period of a candidate had risen by almost four months but Camelot still achieved top placing on the new Jobcentre Plus provider performance tables.

2002 Golden Jubilee Year marked a further special recognition for Camelot Boss Carl Lomas who was listed in the Queens Birthday Honours  for an MBE recognising services to Training in the Courier Industry. The whole team stood proud for the summer of 2003 to receive ISO 9000 recognition.

Quality within Camelot was further backed up with the stamp of approval of OFSTEAD Adult Learning Inspectorate (ALI). Following a December 2003 audit by ALI, grades were given in 2004 for good practice scores to everything Camelot do and ALI particularly noted the excellent NVQ results as a good strength. Not surprisingly, Camelot was listed in the ALI annual report for the year, again one of the top training providers in the UK.

Mid 2004 Camelot moved to the ground floor offices of 332 Goswell Road, more space made extra class & tutorial rooms available, all presentations were upgraded to power-point projection and a new step to the latest NVQ, Carry & Deliver Goods refreshed the teaching energy and enlivened the learning environment.

Other bonus from the added space included the start of a courier museum and a specialist library of motorcycle and courier books. Adding some two wheel glamour to the front window of the new ground floor offices a restored twenty year old Honda VF1000R production racer motorcycle arrived in early 2005. The red white and blue monster brought immediate interest to everyone on two wheels.

The small museum of courier items, radio, clothing and motorcycle brings an ever wider experience to the candidates of all things courier. Amongst the many technical items such as GPS and compass lies a fine porcelain T Pot. The T Pot is enamelled with a street map of London and has become a fun centre piece inspiring many a conversation on location finding.

Following from the success of the VF1000R motorcycle in the front window was the restoration of an iconic courier motorcycle of the eighties, a CX500, the most typical working bike of the era, it was unveiled by Lord Falkland at the 2005 National Courier Awards.

The learning experience for the candidates has improved year on year, even with harder to help candidates. With low unemployment figures the ten year success rate holds at over seventy per-cent of every candidate who started the course moving from long term unemployment to full time job placement but clearly with such low unemployment changes in funding from government were immanent.

Jobcentre Plus cut much of its adult learning in September 2005. This action sadly saw starts finally put on hold for Camelot. Some Learn Direct work continued to December and candidates on the programmes are set to finish their twenty-week courses to run through into January 2006. A last block of candidates subcontracted from Work Directions ithrough to April 2006 achieved 75% job outcomes.

Fingers are crossed  for July 2006 Jobcentre Plus sub contracting starts, options with the London Development Agency and ESF were unsucesful.. Whilst early 2006 is a sad and grey time  the philosophy is not one of the end of the line, it is more focused on the many candidates that have been helped over the last decade. Recognition of the work continues with the association of Industrial Road Safety Officers giving an award to Carl Lomas recognising the impact of the training work in the courier industry on road safety in Great Britain.

The philosophy of continuous evaluation and improvement continues.

Also availanle:-