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Volvo Group promotes traffic safety through learnership programs

2018-11-14
Get inspired by the various projects initiated by the 2017 Seasonal gift. This initiative engages colleagues around the world to drive prosperity through addressing needs identified in their respective areas. Read about how South Africa is investing in driver training to further develop and improve its local transport industry, whilst Estonia educates children in traffic safety. In Mexico, the donation helps rebuilding homes for earthquake victims in a remote village.
Promoting traffic safety

The newly-established Volvo Group Driver Learnership programme in South Africa includes 20 unemployed commercial vehicle drivers and uses product-specific training provided by the brands' highly-skilled driver trainers.

"We are very proud to make a tangible contribution towards developing driver skills  and to constructively impact the local transport industry.  With an acute need for qualified and skilled drivers, we believe this programme will contribute positively towards this industry-wide problem in a very practical, yet impactful way," says Marcus Hörberg, Vice-President of Volvo Group Southern Africa.

Caption: The first intake of drivers started their learnership in July 2018 and after they have completed the 12-month learnership in June 2019, they will graduate with a National Certificate in Professional Driving from the Commercial Transport Academy (CTA) in Bredell, South Africa, based on both theoretical and practical modules.

One of the learners is 39-year old Thabo Ratshoene, who has experience as a truck operator in the mining and construction industry: "I am very grateful to be part of this learnership programme and even though I am an experienced truck driver, I believe this qualification will enable me to advance my career and open new opportunities for me.  One day, I would like to be a driver trainer myself and all the knowledge and experience gained through this course, will enable me to fulfil my dream," says Ratshoene (far right in top image).

In Estonia, the goal was to educate 1,000 children in 100 sessions, using the Stop, Look, Wave material developed by Volvo Trucks. "Today, we have trained 4,142 children in 338 groups and we have another 2,000 waiting and that we hope to be able to add soon", says Raili Riiberg, Sales, Marketing and PR manager for the Estonian market.

The main focus has been to educate as many children as possible and to reach out to different locations around Estonia: "We have already been to the Estonian islands Hiiumaa, and other more or less remote locations. More and more clients have asked for us to come to their children's' schools. We also try to use more customer trucks to show real life units that the children are used to see driving around in their neighbourhood," says Raili Riiberg. 

The Stop, Look, Wave program is very popular among schools and kindergartens.

Raili Riiberg says they hope to have this in the future as or focus area every year: "We have produced posters, foldable trucks, thank you notes, reflectors, and licenses to leave behind at the schools. This way the children will remember our message as they come to school every day."

In Mexico, Volvo Buses has helped rebuilding 23 of the 64 houses that were destroyed during severe earthquakes in September 2017, as well as the health center and the two school classrooms. The houses are located in a remote village some 2.5 hours from the capital of the state Chiapas. The village has some 1,200 inhabitants including children and adults with special needs.  

For this project, Volvo Buses has worked together with CADENA A.C. (National Disasters and Emergencies Relief Committee), a nonprofit organization devoted to the assistance in times of emergency and prevention in the event of natural disasters.

The objective was to reconstruct the town and support the reactivation of its local economy, life style, education and to offer safe facilities where they could offer health services.

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