The reversing part of the test is a joke anyway. Its usually carried out in the test centre with cones laid out where you have to reverse into a spot about a trucks length behind you and 10 or 15 feet to the side of you and getting the back of the truck level with an area a couple of feet across. Its pretty easy to pass just by practice and remembering when to turn the wheel. It is in no way an adequate test and should have been ditched in favour of real life situations like backing between other trailers or reversing into a side road.
Not sure I agree with the coupling/uncoupling being ditched. There have been countless deaths of drivers because they havent hooked up in a safe manner, usually while trying to save time, it really should be a critical part of the test.
Reversing and coupling/uncoupling should be part of any decent companies assessment anyway, so it looks like they a passing the buck to business.
The changes really won't do anything to address the shortage, which as Scania points out, is down to poor pay, and even worse conditions.