Technology and skill-set evolution drive training
A landslide change has taken place in the content and methodology of education and training practice in the supply chain management, transport and logistics sector during the past 25 years.
In addition to the number of formalised opportunities flourishing, delivery has shifted from the traditional classroom to encompass electronic aids and distance learning, and content has evolved to reflect technological advancement in what was once a very manual-oriented sector.
Manukau Institute of Technology (MIT) Centre for Logistics shipping and freight senior lecturer Dave Hope has observed a “huge change in focus” over the period.
“Our students now require wireless connection to the Internet in the classroom, and they all bring laptops, which in turn creates an environment which is conducive to research,” he says. “We’re moving more into blended learning now, where we coordinate tutorials, seminars and electronic learning on a more customised basis – we have distance learning students come in for tutorials and seminars, and we deliver content by electronic blackboard. I perceive this method of delivery will grow and grow.”
Where once there were limited training and educational offerings, Mr Hope says the comprehensive packages now being offered have also been carefully tailored to the modern-day needs of the sector. “Everything comes back to computers and containers – if computers and containers had not been developed, then we would not have the infrastructure and supply chain that we have now. Everything has developed from there.
“Globally, most people in the industry now are in regular communication nationally and internationally all the time. It is a dynamic industry. There is a huge difference in the communication and problem-solving skills that young people need to have to enter this workforce. Communication skills have become more and more critical, and employees need to have good logic and problemsolving skills, and the ability to handle changes of pace.”
Explosion of opportunities
MIT director of strategy and planning, Captain Tim Wilson, says in addition to formalising education that was predominantly provided informally on the job, the development of polytechnic and university offerings has enabled pre-entry training for potential employees before they join the sector.
He is also pleased to see some of the costs of training and education transfer from the sector itself into government and/or student hands, “so we are now more aligned with other parts of the employment sector in terms of funding support”.
Logistics Training Group (LTG) director, Walter Glass, says the explosion of the Internet and e-learning capabilities have rapidly increased the speed and flexibility with which students can progress through courses. He adds that learning content has significantly evolved on the back of communication and technological developments. “In 1985 we had only just got the PC – now virtually nothing is done manually,” he says.
“We used to talk about the principles of how things worked in a traditional logistics management sense. Now we’ve added more defined subjects, such as international business, retail logistics, production planning, sourcing and supply chain networks development. We’re looking more at pipelines and technology capability – if you look at logistics and moving something down a road, it is exactly the same in terms of moving information from one company or country to another. We’ve got this far broader perspective of learning now, not only in terms of material and knowledge development around efficiency and improvement, but also all this new technology we’ve got to learn about.”
Mr Glass adds that there are also expectations around the skill-set of a person in the industry: “They have to be computer-savvy, technologically up to speed with all of the things that are changing, but to maximise these benefits they have to be trained better.”
Prior learning
Another evolution during the last quarter-century has been the recognition by such organisations as LTG of ‘prior learning’ as a means of determining candidates’ eligibility for higher education. “In terms of a postgraduate course, ours is pretty much the only programme that does not require an undergraduate qualification at all,” Mr Glass says. “However, we have to be entirely sure the person has enough experience, can demonstrate adequate expertise, and is competent enough to handle a computer as well as the demanding course work.
“Students come to us because they have experience, but need a qualification as well, and don’t want to spend three or four years at a university doing undergraduate work, which essentially they’ve already learned. We also have quite a number of people who have existing degrees, but want to do an applied course,” he adds. Some professional educators lament the loss of certain aspects of training and education practice of a quarter-century ago, such as the face-to-face element. MIT Centre for Logistics senior lecturer Vic Dundas comments: “You could see if your message was getting across. Sure, you have your checks and balances with this longdistance learning, but at times the tutor needs to be diligent so that the learning experience does not become impersonal.
“There is ongoing development of our long-distance teaching – it’s getting the right questions to ask, having the ability to communicate visually in long-distance learning settings, and Skype and so forth now feature. So the difficulties do rectify themselves as technology continues to advance.”
Cost and time restraints
Dave Hope notes the challenge of adapting today’s offerings to modern cost and particularly time restraints. “Time is essential these days – the ability just to allow employees to go off on courses is less, so you have to pack in more, resulting in more intensive-level courses.
“Over the past five or six years we’ve tested lots of different methods of training people who can’t come to the classroom. I get constant emails asking questions on a daily basis, and in the weekends we bring them in for seminars. I also run evening tutorials. All of these things are designed to accommodate schedules where the students are not available between 8am and 5pm.”
The ‘old school’ methods of informal on-the-job learning also arguably suited certain ‘people with potential’, adds Captain Wilson. “It worked really well where you had a company with a commitment to developing its own workforce. Some of the shipping agents were exceptionally good at bringing talent through and giving them a broad experience.”
He also laments the loss of the old-style rotational training, where new entrants were exposed to a whole lot of functions in a workplace before they settled on an area. “I don’t know that it serves the industry best in the long term to specialise too early,” he says.
Old grey heads
While it appears the provision of training and education in this sector has moved in step with and maintained alignment to international practice, there are nonetheless certain issues surfacing on the home front. “There is a real danger that much of our industry is being run by ‘old grey heads’ and we do need to be bringing some younger talent through,” continues Captain Wilson. “We need a little more focus on working to develop competence so that we can replace the leadership of the industry as the need arises going forward.
“With the move of some of the broad-function offices overseas, I’d also argue that in the last five years, broad global understanding of everything in the supply chain has fallen down the priority list for some of the agents. The risk is that New Zealand could end up with inferior shipping if this global context is not understood.”
Mr Glass agrees that the local transport and logistics sector is “absolutely dominated” by people 50 years old and above at a mid to senior management level. “Governments haven’t, despite endless warnings, taken onboard the fact that the New Zealand logistics and transport sector needs to educate more people in that middle-management area – not just in operations. You need people coming through for business succession and development with the exact profile of the ones we teach – early-30s to mid-40s. “The enormity of the problems coming in the transport and logistics sector – particularly in land transport labour resourcing and environmental costs – will be nationally significant. Also, it is not a favoured sector by the young, and many who may have considered logistics roles 25 years ago are now going into IT or other computer-based careers.
“We’ll keep educating people in logistics and supply chain management, but we’ll also have to keep them up to date with the current technology, such as RFID and the automation coming into warehousing and transport, as well as the next-generation sixthsense technology devices.”
Iain MacIntyre is a freelance writer specialising in transport and logistics; he can be contacted at i.macintyre@xtra.co.nz