Trades 4 U

Thousands of bottle-shaped kilns once dominated the skyline of Stoke-on-Trent, used to fire Wedgwood, Royal Doulton and Spode China. That was when half the city’s workforce, more than 80,000 people, worked in the pottery factories. Now less than 5,000 are directly employed in the industry that it became so synonymous with this part of the Midlands. While a handful of ceramics businesses remain, all the coal mines and steel works have long gone. The industrial landmarks of modern-day Stoke-on-Trent are giant warehouses and distribution centres for supermarkets. Logistics – the storage and transport of goods – offers some of the best job opportunities in the area, still popularly known as The Potteries. Spotting a skills gap in this rapidly expanding sector, Derek Foster launched Action Training (Stoke) Limited in 2002 in conjunction with Action Midlands Limited, established since 1997 to help employers train their workforces to operate the latest forklift trucks and handling equipment.