IN Brief:
- The Government plans earlier work experience and practical training for pupils from 2028.
- CILT wants logistics recognised alongside priority growth industries and supported through flexible skills funding.
- Generation Logistics has recorded two million website visits and substantial increases in sector awareness.
The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport UK has welcomed plans to give pupils earlier access to work experience and vocational training while calling for logistics to receive greater priority within the Government’s growth and skills programme.
From 2028, pupils aged 14 will be able to combine core academic study with practical skills training, work experience, improved careers guidance, and stronger contact with employers.
Schools will work with colleges, businesses, and government to align education with regional workforce requirements and create clearer routes into technical and vocational employment.
CILT supports the direction of the reforms but wants a national information and coordination body to help learners, employers, and training providers navigate local opportunities. The institute also wants qualifications and education provision to reflect the different workforce needs of individual regions.
Greater flexibility within the Growth and Skills Levy forms another part of its proposal. CILT wants employers to invest levy funding in established sector qualifications and high quality training outside the regulated apprenticeship system, allowing companies to develop existing staff as well as new entrants.
The institute is a founding partner of Generation Logistics, the industry campaign developed to increase awareness of careers across freight, warehousing, transport, and supply chain management.
Generation Logistics Week ran from 22 to 26 June 2026 alongside the introduction of a Logistics Work Experience Guide for Employers and new careers material on BBC Bitesize. The campaign has generated more than two million website visits, raised awareness of logistics careers by 37%, and increased positive perceptions by 212%.
The Government intends to shape education around industries that are growing within local communities. Logistics and freight were recognised in the June 2025 Industrial Strategy as supporting the wider economy and its eight priority sectors, although they were not designated as a priority sector in their own right.
Daniel Parker Klein, Director of Policy, Communications and Insight at CILT(UK), said: “Whilst we welcome the Government’s announcement, CILT(UK) believes a national information and coordination body is needed to help learners, employers and training providers navigate local skills opportunities and ensure education and qualifications meet the needs of different regions.”
He added: “The Institute continues to call for logistics and transport to be given equivalent priority in terms of future skills and greater flexibility within the Growth and Skills Levy, enabling employers to invest in existing sector specific qualifications and high quality non regulated training — helping businesses upskill and reskill both existing employees and future talent.”
Technology changes the sector’s skills profile
Logistics employment covers driving, warehouse operations, procurement, planning, engineering, customs, systems, data, automation, maintenance, and management. That breadth creates several entry routes, but it also makes the sector difficult to represent through one qualification or a single image of operational work.
Regional coordination could align training with the infrastructure and industries present locally. Port areas need customs, forwarding, terminal, and maritime expertise, while distribution clusters require automation technicians, transport planners, warehouse managers, and engineers capable of maintaining increasingly complex equipment.
Employers also need routes for developing people already working inside the sector. Electric vehicles, robotics, artificial intelligence, warehouse software, and new border processes are changing established roles, creating demand for shorter technical courses alongside apprenticeships, degrees, and professional qualifications.
Recruitment pressure is increasingly connected to technology adoption. Research into supply chain AI has identified shortages of people who understand both operational processes and advanced data systems, creating a constraint even where companies have approved technology investment.
Industry programmes are responding by connecting education and developing technology with live operating problems. GXO’s UK and Ireland logistics accelerator provides one route for introducing new skills and technology into established warehouse and transport environments.
CILT also coordinates the Novus programme, which brings universities and employers together through undergraduate placements, coaching, and mentoring. Its policy response positions vocational and higher education as complementary routes, since the sector requires practical technical skills as well as advanced analytical and leadership capability.
More than one million people aged between 16 and 24 are currently not in education, employment, or training. Earlier exposure to workplaces could reveal careers that are difficult to understand through conventional classroom subjects, although placements need structure, supervision, and meaningful tasks rather than functioning as brief site tours.
Employer participation carries its own requirements. Managers must provide time, safeguarding, insurance, defined activities, and a route for maintaining contact with interested pupils. Smaller logistics companies may need templates and coordination support before they can offer placements consistently.
Further detail will emerge through the Government’s implementation proposals and the final Young People and Work report. The central policy decision is whether logistics remains treated mainly as supporting infrastructure for other industries or receives a coordinated skills pathway reflecting its own scale, technology, and workforce requirements.
