FatLarry68:
Not sure if I’m posting this in the right place but…I’m interested in doing my Transport Manager CPC. Partly because I enjoy learning, partly because it’s something I’d consider as a career as I get older.
I like the idea of doing it remotely / at my own pace rather than in a classroom.
Anyone else have experience of doing this and / or can recommend a decent provider?
This is what I’m currently looking at but don’t know anything about the company.
Happy to take on board any advice!
Thanks
I did my TMCPC with Enterprise Training online around 18 months ago and passed first time.
The first thing I’d say is its not really “at your leisure” because you’re working towards the exam date. So make sure you’re requesting an exam date far enough out to give you time to study.
There’s a few things that I found really useful about online - All the classes are recorded so if you didn’t understand something you can go back later and watch the class again. There’s lots of previous classes all grouped into subject areas taught by different people.You can watch them all if you want. I found one particular guy who’s teaching style I really understood so I watched his classes online and went into the live classes as well to ask questions for anything I didn’t understand or needed clarification - ferry hours was my Achilles heel!
They also have short animated videos to hammer home the really important stuff like drivers hours, 9/10 hour driving, ferry crossings, reduced breaks, split breaks, etc etc
The ‘live classes’ are just that. They’re live. You’re in a virtual room with lots of other people where you can see their faces and they can see you. We had guys doing European work, skip lorries, fridge work, traction work, pallet network multi-drop there was even a guy from Scotland that did radioactive work. It was lively and interesting and I made a couple of friends from it I still chat to. You’re not watching a blank screen or listening to a pre-recorded teacher. It’s live. You can ask questions or listen to other people ask questions. Be honest and say if you’re struggling in an area and the teacher and classmates will offer advice.
There’s lots of test modules online that you can try to see where you’re at. In the beginning I was getting fails but it shows you the areas you’re passing and the areas you’re failing so you know where to focus your study - no point just doing more Driver hours if you’re scoring 90% and you’re scoring 25% on the trip calculations.
I found it really convenient to watch a class while I was sat waiting to be loaded or at the end of the day.
You’ll get three massive booklets when you enroll. Looks pretty daunting at the beginning but they are life savers when you’re doing TMCPC for yourself because all the information is there. It’s a reference guide once you’ve passed.
I saw lots of people on my course who I knew were going to fail. They saw the letters ‘CPC’ and thought it was going to be like a Driver CPC course where you log on and watch telly for 7 hours and get a pass. TMCPC is NOT that! It takes work and study to pass.
Personally, I don’t think I would have been able to absorb that much information in a week of class room learning. I needed it to be like a Netflix series where I could jump in and out at my convenience while working and having a family.
In my experience online offered way more than a classroom ever could…and I didn’t have to leave the house.