MALAWI National Express Group’s Spanish subsidiary ALSA is taking part in a professional training scheme for bus drivers, organised by the charity Transaid in Malawi, south-east Africa. The aim of the programme is to improve the skills of driver trainers and boost safety levels so that in future trainers can provide their own training courses, based on an internationally recognised programme.
Within the framework of the first stage of the project, Silvio Sorrentino, ALSA’s Operations Manager in Agadir, Morocco, has travelled to Malawi with a number of professional trainers from National Express inn the UK. Silvio will be in charge of coordinating the scheme and courses on the field as the project manager until September 2016. He will also engage with different local figures to ensure the success of the scheme.
Transaid is a British charity for international development. It was founded by Save the Children and the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and identifies champions and implements local transport solutions to improve access to basic services and economic opportunities in developing countries.
National Express Group, to which ALSA belongs, has been taking part in Transaid’s professional driver training programme in Africa for the last five years. Volunteer trainers have supported projects in Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. This is the first time that volunteers have worked in Malawi.
By taking part in Transaid’s driver training programme, ALSA is strengthening, as part of its corporate responsibility policy, its commitment to the community and is fostering the training of drivers as a distinguishing factor in the struggle to improve road safety in the region, says the operator.