The government has ended hopes of establishing a national logistics academy after its organisers failed to secure funding.
The Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS) rejected attempts from Skills for Logistics (SFL) despite backing from the Department for Transport, Unipart Logistics and Palletline Distribution, among others.
It comes as a bitter blow to the sector skills council after seeing four new national skills academies granted a share of £30 million in government funding.
Those academies will specialise in enterprise, power, IT and social care and their portions of the funding will be matched by their respective stakeholders.
In spite of the bad news, SFL chief executive Mick Jackson expects some progress on the project in the near future.
"It is a disappointment but we have a feedback session with the government early next week and want to hear what they say," he is quoted as saying on roadtransport.com.
"I'm buoyed up with the momentum we have generated so far, and certainly, as a minimum, we will bid in the next round."
Should the academy be realised, it will educate students in logistics and supply chain management but will be mainly targeted at those between the ages of 16 and 19.
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