The course aims to be helpful in teaching those new to the game how to deal with clients

Andrew Young, course convener

The convener of the course at Edinburgh's Telford College, Andrew Young, explained: "We aim to up their people skills.

"Some taxi drivers are very good while others perhaps have an attitude problem.

"The course aims to be helpful in teaching those new to the game how to deal with clients."

The course will focus on first aid, coping with conflict and stress, customer care, basic vehicle maintenance and wheelchair access.

It will begin each month from next February and is estimated to cost no more than �250.

If the six-month pilot scheme is successful, it could become mandatory for all student taxi drivers.

'Conflict resolution'

The council said it was planning to use some of the �150,000 amassed from taxi licensing fees to fund the initiative.

Taxi drivers in Edinburgh currently pay a �1,000 licensing fee plus a �172 annual fee.

It is hoped that those who have been affected by mass redundancies, such as the job losses at Motorola, could be attracted to the course and a career as a cabbie.

The drivers will not be taught self defence

Taxi drivers will not be taught self-defence.

Mr Young said: "Say a couple get in the back of the cab and they have an argument or if a couple of drunks start arguing over the fare or they don't want to pay, that's where the conflict resolution aspect would come in.

"But it will focus on teaching taxi drivers to defuse the situation, there's no physical element to it."

Mark Greenhalgh, spokesman for the Taxi Liaison Group which has developed the initiative with the council, said the course would bring benefits to the industry and to the capital.

'Save lives'

He said: "I know a good few taxi drivers who have arrived first on the scene of an accident but they don't know any first aid and in some cases the person has died because no one has been immediately on the scene to give first aid.

"But imagine having a few thousand first aiders driving about the city at any one time. They could help save a lot of lives."

He said the recruitment drive aimed to put more drivers on the road and not to increase the actual number of taxis.

"It makes more economic sense for drivers to share a vehicle and rotate their shifts, and that's where the big shortfall is at the moment.

"There's a lot of drivers who don't have anyone to rent their vehicle to and so they're working very long hours to make the work profitable."