Palmerston North-based Booth’s Logistics is a large, fast-growing company with more than 400 trucks and 800 employees operating around Aotearoa.

The company has included MITO micro-credentials and the Road To Success programme in its workforce development matrix.

Designed for employees and owner operators in the commercial road transport industry, the micro-credential provides the foundation knowledge required to understand industry documentation, vehicle systems, customer service, heavy combination vehicle dynamics, safe driving, and loading principles and procedures.

Des Waters, learning and development lead at Booth’s Logistics, says education and training are a real benefit to not only the staff, but the business as a whole.

“We want to grow our people as fast as we are growing our business. We really see the value in training and development, in that not only are we safe and compliant, but we’re also benefiting our staff and the product we are delivering,” he says.

“It gives us a point of difference, something extra, to show our customers and set us apart.”

Des says the MITO and Road to Success programmes are well designed to work alongside the industry and the work transport operators do.

“We can get our staff certified and make sure they understand how to put different weights on trucks and how to secure them.

“The courses are well crafted and aligned to the work we do. And the team at MITO are also really supportive and helpful.”

Des says seeing staff achieve the qualifications is a highlight of the programme.

“The cool thing about the micro-credentials is they get a certificate. Some of these guys have left school and never achieved anything, never got credits or anything like that, and we’re trying to say to them, education doesn’t have to be what it was like when you were at school,” he says.

“We’re into making it enjoyable, something that is actually going to benefit them in their job.

“The little glint they get in their eye when they get their certificate… it looks like a degree – it has a proper seal on it. They hang it up; it’s great. When you talk to them about it, it’s definitely something they see a benefit in, and they’re proud.

“Obviously, we’d like to retain our staff, but if they go somewhere else, that company knows they’ll be getting some of the best people around because that’s what we’re interested in.”

Smaller than a qualification, micro-credentials certify achievement of a specific set of skills and knowledge and are approved by NZQA.

For more information, check out mito.org.nz.