SPECIAL REPORT:
EDUCATION = TRANSPORTATION AND TRADE SMARTS
Thorough understanding of day-to-day mechanics
of international business key for today’s supply chain professionals
By KATHLYN HORIBE
May 4, 2009
According to the Ontario Ministry of Finance, seven out of 10 jobs now require a post-secondary education. Since 1981, five million additional positions became available to Canadians with advanced qualifications compared to a two-million-job decrease for those with a high school education or less.
Upgrading your job skills during an economic downturn can also be a benefit.
“Especially now, given the recent changes in the economy, employees with current and updated skills and knowledge will be essential to companies as they emerge from the current economic environment,” said Doug Burek, director of education at the CIFFA Academy of the Toronto-based Canadian International Freight Forwarders Association.
For staff of international freight forwarding companies, CIFFA offers a Professional Freight Forwarder Designation Program and two certificate programs in international freight forwarding.
“When times are good, people and companies have the money to invest in education and training,” Mr. Burek said. “When times are not as good, many people invest in themselves by attending education and training programs, so they are well prepared – and therefore more employable – when the growth cycle returns. Smart individuals and well-run companies look at education and training as an investment rather than an expense.”
Victor Deyglio, president of the Toronto-based Logistics Institute, agrees. The non-profit organization certifies individuals working in logistics with the Professional Logistician designation, P.Log. “In the difficult times we’re all currently facing, up-to-date skills, training and competency are extremely important for employability and value in the workplace,” Mr. Deyglio said. “The P.Log. is an independent confirmation of professional ability in the field of supply chain and logistics management.”
“It doesn’t matter what profession you’re in. You’ve got to be constantly upgrading your education, your skills, your knowledge, because learning has a very short shelf life,” said Catherine Viglas, president of the Canadian Institute of Traffic and Transportation. “Logistics is such a fast-changing profession that if you’re not upgrading yourself and staying current, you are obsolete in no time.”
CITT is a Toronto-based designation granting body in supply chain and transportation logistics management for people working in the industry. The 2,000-member strong organization provides professional certification and development and co-operative networking opportunities.
“In an economic downturn, you’ve got to be as efficient as possible to keep costs down,” said Bob Armstrong, president of Supply Chain & Logistics Association Canada. “You now have the time in a downturn, if you have the necessary skills, to broaden the reaches of the company by exploring all modes of transportation to ensure your goods are moving and being distributed in the most cost-effective manner and that your inventory carrying costs are as low as they can be in the supply chain logistics channel.”
SCL, of Markham, Ont., is a non-profit organization interested in improving practitioners’ logistics and supply chain management skills through a comprehensive program of education, research and networking.
“An economic slowdown can provide opportunities for employees to prepare for the future growth of their company,” said Caroline Tompkins, president of the Ottawa-based Forum for International Trade Training. “Developing the skills and competencies of individuals working in a global business environment create efficiencies in the international trade sector and build Canada’s capacity to compete in global markets.”
FITT is an international trade training and professional certification body that sets the standards and designs training programs for the professional designation Certified International Trade Professional. The CITP, which is awarded upon successful completion of the FITTskills program, is the highest mark of professionalism in international trade and the only professional designation of its kind in Canada.
“The CITP has been publicly recognized by the World Trade Centers Association as the standard of excellence for all world trade centres and their employees,” Ms. Tompkins said.
Growth in online learning
Of all CIFFA programs, the Certificate in International Freight Forwarding attracted the highest number of registrants – 561 – in 2008. “This is based equally on the growth of the industry in Canada and turnover and retirement,” Mr. Burek said.
Part-time courses are offered through Continuing Education at the British Columbia Institute of Technology and the University of Calgary and full time at Vancouver’s Ashton College.
Overall, from 2007 to 2008, the total number of CIFFA students in all programs increased by 54 per cent. CIFFA also offers dangerous goods training, international trade workshops and law and legal liability programs for non-lawyers.
During the same period, the number of e-Learning students for its certificate programs recorded 62 per cent growth. “(That) demonstrates the acceptance of and need for e-Learning,” Mr. Burek said. CIFFA’s Air Dangerous Goods Awareness course is delivered online and takes approximately two hours to complete.
CITT also recorded higher enrolment in distance learning. “It’s increased five per cent,” Ms. Viglas said. “It’s a little higher than normal.”
Distance Learning or e-Learning is now a more acceptable option because the design, technology and quality of online courses continue to improve. “E-Learning is the preferred method of education for many students who don’t have access to a classroom-based program due to locations, dates and times of scheduled courses, and especially for younger individuals coming into the employment stream,” Mr. Burek said.
“Two-thirds of our audience comes through distance learning because these people are working bizarro hours and travel a lot,” Ms. Viglas said. “If you’re stuck in a fixed situation and get transferred, you can’t continue your studies. With us, there’s no problem so you don’t lose the momentum that you’ve started. We have people in Afghanistan continuing their studies with us.”
The CITT program of study is a fairly substantive one, she said, with each of the 10 courses taking a semester to complete. Five of the courses are logistic specific and the remaining five are general business courses given by CITT partner the University of Toronto. “However, if someone has an undergraduate degree in business from another university, we’ll take a look at the transcripts and credit can be given for the five business courses,” Ms. Viglas said. “The program can then be completed in two to two-and-a-half years rather than five years.”
Advantages of classroom learning
“For those who don’t like speaking in sessions, online learning is a boon to communication,” Mr. Deyglio said. “For those who like to talk a lot in sessions, online learning can be restrictive.” Of The Logistics Institute’s five certificate programs for supply chain logistics professionals, the four-week Process Management Program is delivered online as well as in the classroom. In the online option, three of its seven modules are delivered by the institute’s partner, Athabasca University’s Centre for Innovative Management, in Athabasca, Alta. Internationally, the institute offers online modules in partnership with the Leading Edge Group of Ireland and the PMMS Group of the U.K.
Institutes across Canada, which are partnered with CITT, such as Ontario’s Sheridan College Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning, offer its courses in a traditional setting.
For FITTskills participants, classroom training remains the most popular method of delivery. “By using real-life case studies from international trade, FITTskills delivered in the classroom encourages interactive discussions among instructors, guest lecturers and course participants,” Ms. Tompkins said.
The comprehensive performance-related training program consists of eight international business courses that can be taken as a series or individually. “The modularized approach means you can select the course that meets your immediate needs first and then proceed to those that relate to your strategic goals,” she said.
Another FITT program is the Small Exporter Management Certificate, a 25-hour introductory training program designed to expand the business skills and knowledge of small and medium-sized exporters. In partnership with the federal government, the institute also offers Going Global Workshops. These three-hour sessions, also available in French and online, are designed to help individuals and organizations make crucial exporting decisions, avoid common pitfalls and increase their understanding of international trade and foreign markets.
To deliver its education and certification programs, FITT works internationally in the U.S., Jordan, New Zealand and Singapore and in partnership with more than 60 Canadian colleges, universities and other training organizations located in every province of the country, such as the University of Calgary, Montreal’s LaSalle College, the University of Prince Edward Island and 19 Ontario institutions.
The classroom environment at The Logistics Institute is an opportunity for each participant to share his or her experience with the group. “Our classroom modules are heavy on interactive and collaborative learning and building wisdom through experience in a structured course curriculum,” Mr. Deyglio said. “Participants contribute their intelligence and knowledge, interact with their peers and work together in a group environment to grow their skills.”
The program with the most registrants is the institute’s Process Management Program. “It is our standard program that leads to the P.Log. certification and consists of all the core expertise essential for P.Logs,” Mr. Deyglio said. “The other option that is very popular is our Executive Program, which is a six-day intensive for senior logistics professionals – almost a boot-camp experience – that builds upon their experiences. The in-residence setting allows for interactive facilitated sessions that focus on issues and challenges affecting a company’s strategic decision-making process.”
“A few years ago, SCL developed an accreditation program that was designed by professionals with a detailed, industry-driven criteria such as the minimum number of hours of instruction,” Mr. Armstrong said. “The Humber Institute of Technology & Advanced Learning was the first institution to approach us as they liked the program.” Toronto’s Humber, accredited by SCL, offers a one-year graduate certificate in supply chain management with a Logistics Essentials Certificate program given online.
SCL also developed two programs, the Executive Program and the Masters Certificate in Supply Chain and Logistics Management, which is offered by the Schulich School of Business at Toronto’s York University. Another SCL accredited program is the Bachelor of Applied Business, Global Business Management, given by the Sheridan Institute of Technology and Advanced Learning in Brampton, Ont.
Increase in globalization
Over the past 10 to 20 years, continuous learning and ongoing professional development have become more and more important due to changes in technology, economies, regulations and processes. “As global trade becomes more complex, people solutions become more and more important,” Mr. Burek said.
Ms. Tompkins agreed. “The skills and knowledge requirements on how to successfully conduct trade in goods and services are extensive and becoming increasingly complex,” she said. “Canadian companies and SMEs, in particular, operate against a backdrop of increasing globalization and find themselves manoeuvring for competitive advantage. In international trade, a thorough understanding of the day-to-day mechanics of international business is the key to success for many companies.”
For those with a CITT designation, staying on top of their game is second nature. “It’s mandatory that members take continuous education units,” Ms. Viglas said, “and disclose them to us to maintain the designation as membership must be maintained with the body that gives the designation.”
The CITT designation is also an advantage for employers, Ms. Viglas said. “Our members are always getting cutting-edge information from us about the industry and they have a huge network of fellow members that they can talk to through our secured website. If a situation occurs in their company that they don’t know a lot about, they can pose a question on the chat board and other qualified members will respond within 24 hours with good quality advice. What employer would not want that kind of employee?”
Independent surveys have shown for seven consecutive years that the CITT designation is the one that is the most widely held, she added. “When we’ve done our own surveys about the concept of a designation in this field, more and more companies are saying we want to know that they (the members) have solid education and practical experience behind them because our supply chain is important to us.”
Due to the supply chain’s complexity, people need to upgrade to a new set of skills, Mr. Armstrong said. “They aren’t working in silos in today’s supply chain. They have to have the necessary skills because the supply chain is getting far more attention in the boardroom and at senior management levels. It’s all about customer service and innovation.”
“Supply chain logistics is a constantly changing world, from the impact of information technology on the company to the demands of globalization and offshore networks on sourcing, delivery and customer demand,” Mr. Deyglio said. “We live in a highly sophisticated consumer society with intelligent and well-informed customers with high demands for the right product at the right time and for the right price. And today these market demands drive the skills and competency requirements of logistics and supply chain managers.”
With the demands of globalization, the institute is reaching out internationally. CELOGIS (Centro ejecutivo de logistica), based in Monterrey, Mexico, delivers several programs in Spanish aligned to P.Log. certification, and the International Training Center of the Shanghai Foreign Service Company offers modules and programs in Chinese leading to P.Log. certification.
“When the world started shopping globally,” Ms. Viglas said, “our case studies started reflecting that. Where we’re bringing in relevance and currency is in the case studies that we use.”
Upcoming initiatives
As for future programs, CIFFA is moving towards more e-Learning programs. “We recently signed an agreement with Seneca College in Toronto,” Mr. Burek said. “They developed and now offer general business skills courses for our graduate students delivered totally through e-Learning.” Another online initiative with the college is the Customs Professional Certificate program.
“The organization is continuing to monitor its member needs as well as changes in regulations in order to develop new programs accordingly,” Mr. Burek said. “We have several ideas in the early development stage.”
FITT is also focusing on e-Learning. “The next product we’ll be developing is an e-Learning package specific for SMEs,” Ms. Tompkins said. “The delivery format addresses constraints of time and money. The aim of the online modules is to solve a specific international trade issue or knowledge gap in a more easily digestible format than comprehensive training. Though it won’t lead to certification in international trade, the intention is to provide SMEs with answers to those more immediate questions.”
As for The Logistics Institute, it is developing enhancements to its Partners in Professionalism initiative that was launched in 2006. “Future PiP developments will involve integrating degree, diploma and certificate programs delivered by universities and colleges into the P.Log certification process so that professionals can earn academic credentials in addition to their professional designations and graduating students can transition from school to work more easily,” Mr. Deyglio said.
“For a company to remain competitive globally in the best and worst of times, human capacity building is an important element,” Ms. Tompkins said.
“Fundamental competencies for logistics practitioners in procurement, inventory, distribution, warehousing and transportation require a mix of business development and functional expertise,” Mr. Deyglio added. “Balancing that mix is a requirement of employment in today’s logistics labour market.”