trades 4 u
Stoke On Trent
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.