The Road Transport Industry Training Board (RTITB) says there has been a “small but significant” increase in registered female forklift instructors in the United Kingdom this year. 

In the six months to February, 2.1% of people qualifying as RTITB forklift or pallet truck instructors identified as female, according to the workplace transport training body.

In comparison, only 0.37% of all current RTITB forklift instructors are female.

RTITB managing director Laura Nelson says the forklift industry is keen to train new operators to alleviate the shortage of operators in the UK.

“To get more operators into the workplace, businesses need more instructors,” Nelson says. “When upskilling their team, they should be open-minded about who might be a good candidate to become instructors. There may be experienced male operators that don’t have the right attributes to be a great trainer.”

“Though females still make up a small percentage of instructors overall, we hope that the increase we have seen recently will be a sign of further change to come,” she continues.