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The inaugural Hino Learnership programme organised by Hino South Africa has sparked off some excitement among delegates attending the programme at the Hino Training Academy in Sandton. The year-long programme, which started in February, has been compiled to provide comprehensive training for sales staff at the dealerships who are generally new to selling Hino trucks, although they may have prior experience as truck sales staff.
There are 12 delegates on the first course, including one from Namibia. They undergo a week’s intensive theoretical and practical training each month and will then be required to complete a tutorial on the subjects covered. The rest of each month will be spent working at their dealership.
Explaining the idea behind the programme, Vice President of Hino South Africa, Ernie Trautmann, said :”The major focus is on sales and marketing knowledge and skills, although the course also includes visits to the Hino manufacturing facility in Prospecton, technical workshops, body builders and bus builders, so that they can understand the full scope of the environment in which they are working.
“Practical driver training is another aspect of the learnership course. I am a big supporter of driver training not only for the road safety benefits, but also for the fact that it contributes to the durability of the vehicle and the insistence by trained drivers on having a roadworthy truck to drive.
“The learnership course is registered with merSETA and the delegates will receive a certificate when they graduate at the end of the year. They will then be able to continue their studies with a diploma course at Unisa.”
The course was developed in conjunction with a specialist training consultancy. The lecturer, Philip Brandt, comes from a background of vehicle fleet management so he understands the type of information required by fleet operators from a sales staff.
“There is a lot of role-play in the course with the ultimate objective of training the delegates to be in a positon to recommend the correct truck for a particular operation while also knowing how to calculate a finance package that will suit the customer’s business model,” said Brandt. “One of my other objectives is to have each delegate become an ambassador for the Hino brand and a person being trusted by customers buying trucks from him or her.”
