Transport employment and skills taskforce

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

This group has closed

The Transport Employment and Skills Taskforce was set up to help DfT tackle transport labour market and skills issues. The work of the Taskforce has concluded.

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).

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