Tamworth Borough Council are working with Tamworth Job Centre to develop awareness workshops for potential new licensed drivers. The first driver information sessions took place last month in partnership with local operators, Acorn, at their base on Lichfield Street.
The workshop was a success, with four individuals submitting applications to obtain licences to become a taxi driver.
Although the applications are at the early stages, both Acorn and the council are confident that the process will be completed in the coming months.
Document verification for all four applicants is currently ongoing. Once this is done DBS checks will be submitted and the following stages will need to be completed:
- A driving assessment
- Knowledge test
- Medical
- Two online courses (Child Sexual Exploitation and Disability Awareness)
Councillor Martin Summers, Tamworth Borough Council’s Cabinet member for Environmental Health and Community Partnerships, said: We’re delighted to be working with the Job Centre and Acorns to provide awareness workshops to help increase our licenced driver offering within our borough.
“We’re working closely with Acorn, the applicants and the job centre, to push these applications and DBS checks through as smoothly as possible. A special thanks to the team at the council for working hard to deliver this successful outcome.
“This new collaboration will provide opportunities within our borough to help our struggling taxi businesses and improve our day and night-time economy.”
Chris Hines, Work Coach for Tamworth Jobcentre, Department for Work and Pensions, said: “Following a couple of meetings between myself, one of our employer advisors Matt and Sarah, we were all very excited about the prospect of helping our customers through this venture.
“The initial interviews had a high attendance rate and those who were deemed successful also all attended a follow up session arranged by Acorn with the council’s support.
“We are extremely grateful for the continued attentiveness in aid of providing the best quality service to these individuals.
“Subsequently, we held an information session for those who had shown their commitment to Acorn around self-employment. The feedback from this session is a credit to all of those involved in the project, as the applicants showed a real desire for these roles and were keen to maintain their progress. The evident commitment meant we were able to fully fund their applications, with Acorn very kindly funding the DBS checks, meaning this opportunity has come at no cost to our applicants.
“We look forward to not only continuing this project with Tamworth Borough Council and Acorn, but also to creating further opportunities derived from the relationships built in this collaboration, to aid our community in future endeavours in the best way that we can.”