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LEARNING PARTNERSHIPS: The University of Wollongong in Dubai is partnering with Maersk Logistics.

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 coming years. 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 Cedwyn Fernandes, MBA campus programme coordinator at Middlesex University Dubai, points out, 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.

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, especially when we involved leading players from the logistics sector in the learning process."

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 was launched 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 standards in order to stay on top of this increasingly competitive industry. "It's the supply chains that compete in today's business world, not the products," concludes Fernandes.

"Innovative supply chain management techniques are what make certain companies a world leader and others bankrupt. Companies need to understand that it is key to profitability."

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