Industry education

by This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it on Sunday, 01 April 2007

In an increasingly competitive logistics industry, the need for highly proficient and qualified workers has never been greater. What remains an issue of contention in the field, however, is the best way to train and equip logistics workers with the skills needed to progress in the logistics world. Traditional university routes have met with criticism when it comes to these more application-based type subjects, with the main compounding factor being the suitability of newly qualified graduates to quickly adapt, and contribute, to the logistics sector working environment. For this reason, some of the leading logistics companies have taken up the gauntlet themselves, aiming to bridge the gap between theory and application and improve the standards and quality of logistics education, and the industry as a whole.

"Logistics education is a recent phenomenon in the Middle East," admits Professor Philbert Suresh, consultant at TransLogistique Canada. "A decade ago, the corporations, governments and other stakeholders realised the vital shift of the logistics paradigm into business management. Consequently, it is no longer difficult to see a senior manager at the level of VP and CEO coming from a logistics background. The function of logistics has today become a boardroom preoccupation."

Suresh himself ran short logistics courses under the banner of Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry (DCCI) in 2003 and since then, has witnessed a growing realisation of the crucial importance of logistics education in the region. "The economy has become a knowledge economy where success goes to those who know how to leverage the wealth of the service sector of which logistics is a critical part," he maintains. "Companies in the region have developed a more complex array of strategic capabilities that allow them to capture the competitive advantages that accrue to efficiency, responsiveness and learning."

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As part of this change, Suresh applauds the current trend of logistics companies setting up their own learning centres, viewing it as a positive step forward. For the global shipping, logistics and marine services company, GAC, providing its own logistics learning facility is now a core part of its business strategy. Launched in February this year, the new GAC Corporate Academy (GCA) aims to provide learning opportunities for its employees throughout GAC's global businesses. Tailored for GAC personnel, a wide range of professional development courses are offered through a combination of predominantly e-learning technology and work-based learning. "I am a very passionate advocate of e-learning and if done correctly, we can really make the learning experience very dynamic for people," enthuses Damien O'Donoghue, general manager of GCA.

The academy plans to gradually introduce more workshop type courses, to cover interactive subjects such as presentation skills, strategic management and the more advanced creative processes. The investment behind the academy comes down to human resource development - how to harness the potential of personnel to the maximum effect for the good of the business overall. At present, GAC employs around 7000 people around the world. This is expected to grow to 10,000 within the next three years. Alongside the growth of the company, the academy is also expected to grow at an impressive rate.

"In terms of global coverage, we are just starting," says O'Donoghue. "We will have 1000 places on the various courses launched this year. Next year, this will be increased by 200%, to about 3000 places and will be doubled the year after."

By the end of 2009, GCA plans to offer a complete range of programmes specific to its four core business areas, which are shipping, logistics, marine and solutions. With such an impressive specification, the aim of the academy is to fulfil the perceived gap between the traditional educational route and the logistics industry itself.

"The difference that we want to create is very much process oriented learning where the participants take an active part of the learning, and where they are constructing knowledge in a context that is relevant to them, which is very different to the way universities do it today," explains O'Donoghue. "We want people to learn about leadership through a GAC context. We want people to learn about freight forwarding through a GAC context. So we are not wasting any of the knowledge being generated through that learning process."

In other words, for GAC, it's all about providing a learning opportunity in a working context - in order to repay the investment back into the core business itself. Tailor-made logistics learning also provides more flexibility for a global company, which employs over 40 different cultures and nationalities in terms of the differing learning styles. Furthermore, the tightly focused learning outcomes set by the academy translate to a potentially much faster learning cycle for the students.

"Through this, GAC will become a learning organisation," aspires O'Donoghue. "The way we think about situations, the way we create knowledge, the ways we network, the way we skilfully use our human capital, all of those ideas are going to be transformed over the next year. So it really is a very key organisational development strategy as well as up-skilling our people."

For global logistics companies, as for GAC, such initiatives clearly allow the company to ensure that their employees are highly trained to meet their business' specific requirements.

However, as Dr Cedywn Fernandes, chair of the college of graduate studies at the University of Wollongong Dubai (UOWD), points out that company-based learning centres, whilst valuable in their own right, tend to be mainly focused on the needs and activities of that specific company alone. "The chances are that the scope of the curriculum will be narrower than that of a university programme which will incorporate the experience and divergent views from many industry players," he states.

UOWD is planning to introduce a masters degree in supply chain management, combining both practical and theoretical aspects. It aims to provide managers with the tools to effectively implement supply chain management in order to enhance the competitive success and profitability of their organisations. Fernandes disagrees that university courses in supply chain management do not necessarily equip students with a realistic expectation and knowledge of working in the logistics industry. "The good thing about the courses in supply chain management taught at universities is that they are practical and case study based," he says. "Supply chain management as a discipline came mainly from industry based experiences so there is not much of a gap between the academic side and the industry."

Building on its success with a centre dedicated to supply chain research in Australia, the university also plans to establish a similar research centre for logistics in Dubai by 2008. "But we look forward to further strengthening our programme with industry partnerships and having a free-flow of ideas," adds Fernandes.

In many respects, the collaboration of industry and educational establishments appears to be the best way to ensure a more generic mix of theoretical and practical learning. One such initiative has been recently set up by Aramex. In association with the German Jordan University (GJU) in Amman, the company has launched a new Centre of Excellence for Logistics which is expected to shape the university's logistics and transportation-related programmes.

Iyad Kamal, vice president for logistics and ground services, believes that this mutually beneficial relationship will deliver positive benefits for the students themselves as well as the company. "With the centre, both Aramex and the students will benefit in a lot of ways. University students will be able to come and train at Aramex, to get practical experience in logistics and transport, and we will also participate in lectures," he says. "Then when the students actually graduate from university, Aramex will be a prime employer for them."

One of the main aims of the centre is to help ensure that the course content is in line with local and regional business requirements, bringing together the logistics and education sectors to enable a closer fit between the skills and knowledge acquired by students, and those needed in the logistics industry. "What students learn at university won't necessarily be applicable to work," Kamal points out. "So for instance, if a student takes a warehousing and facility design and management course at university, they need to come to a facility like ours and witness how warehousing and facility design works in practice."

Aramex hopes to expand this concept across the whole of the Middle East, as part of its contribution to raising standards for the industry's development in the region and beyond. "It is important for us to contribute, not just in terms of servicing clients, but at the same time increasing the level of knowledge and awareness of logistics and transport in the region," emphasises Kamal.

Indeed such initiatives, whether inhouse academies or collaborations with existing education providers, can only be beneficial for the logistics industry as a whole. With the increasing importance given to logistics education overall, the industry can expect to see an overall up-skilling in logistics workers, as well as better equipped new entrants into the field. Alongside the strong growth of the logistics industry in the Middle East, the need for such highly skilled logistics personnel will also continue to increase.

"In other words the demand will outstrip the supply of newly trained graduates in logistics and supply chain management," predicts Suresh. Companies will want to ensure that their logistics personnel are of the highest skills and standards in order to stay on top of this increasingly competitive industry. "In today's business world it is the supply chains that compete, not the products," concludes Fernandes. "Innovative supply chain management techniques are what make certain companies a world leader and others bankrupt. If companies want to remain profitable they need to understand that efficient and responsive supply chain management is key to profitability."

Learning logistics the Agility way

Logistics learning is at the top of the agenda for Agility, the global provider of integrated supply chain solutions. Under this new brand, the company formerly known as PWC Logistics has also branched out into the logistics education world with its own inhouse university.

"As Agility grew from a regional to a global enterprise, a part of our growth strategy was to invest in people through state of the art training. In 2004 we set up what we then called our Logistics University," says Nadim Abboud, director at Agility University. "We believe in enhancing the skills and talents of our employees through development and training, and empowering them to make decisions so they can better serve our customers."

The university is part of the company's global HR function and caters to Agility's 20,000 employees in 450 offices across a 100 countries. Providing a learning facility which cuts across so many countries and cultures has not been an easy challenge for the company, but it is confident to have found the best solution. "We follow the ‘federated' model where all enterprise learning initiatives have nominated ‘champions' in all regions of the world who ensure consistency in delivery of training," explains Abboud. "Through the university, we are able to tailor our curriculum to meet these differing needs, as well as communicate our corporate culture."

Whilst acknowledging the important role of traditional education, he believes that having employees with corporate university knowledge can provide the crucial competitive advantage for logistics companies. "The mission of a corporate university is to align itself with the strategy of the business, and help the business achieve its goals by building the necessary organisational capabilities," he adds.

For Agility, the university provides a tangible investment in its employees, and this, in turn, inevitably results in dividends for the company as a whole. "We benefit from their enhanced skills to deliver the high quality personal service to our customers," emphasises Abboud. "By giving them the skills they need to succeed with customers, our employees view us in a more positive light and we are viewed as an employer they choose to remain with."

Indeed, as is being increasingly recognised by the leading logistics companies worldwide, it is this investment in its people wealth, which provides the stepladder to being at the top of the logistics industry.

As Abboud concludes "All this contributes to the personal service we pride ourselves on delivering and gets us closer to our vision of being one of the top global logistics providers."

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