Internationally recognised transport and logistics qualifications will help put a lid on South Africa’s rising logistics costs, explains Charles Dey.

The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) has, for many years, had internationally recognised qualifications in logistics and transport.

In South Africa, we’ve grappled with getting those courses launched, because the Institute did not have the capacity to offer these programmes, nor was there a critical mass for training providers to make this a viable opportunity. Recently however we have partnered with people who are highly competent and accredited, nationally and internationally, to provide courses in the supply chain management space.

At the beginning of the year, CILTSA decided to link up with a small number of high-quality organisations that are interested in becoming accredited as education and training providers and allowing them to deliver these courses in terms of the CILT criteria. We’ve successfully accredited Commerce Edge and are currently in the process of accrediting three other training providers to get these programmes launched.

Barriers
A possible barrier to acceptance of the courses is the fact that they are not necessarily funded by the transport SETA, because they are related to an international qualification and not a locally registered one. We are looking into the possibility of aligning the international qualifications to locally registered qualifications, and we’ll hopefully do this with the cooperation of those providers who partner with us to provide these courses.

One of the more exciting developments, in this regard, is the fact that there is an institute of higher learning – a private university – which is busy incorporating the CILT curriculum into their bachelor of management science degree, using a CILT-accredited provider as their ‘logistics and transport faculty’. By taking all the courses in this degree, as well as the CILT element of it, you get a bachelor’s degree and, by writing a board exam, international professional recognition.

We need to realise that South Africa spends somewhere between 11% and 12% of its GDP on logistics and transport. If we could reduce that by even a few percent, through increased competence on behalf of the practitioners, we would be saving this country billions and making it a lot more competitive in international markets.

The potential for improving the operational efficiency of the entire Southern African transport infrastructure is significant, if we implement as much CILT-directed training in association with other CILT branches in the region and in the rest of Africa.

In my experience, a CILT qualification teaches you to think strategically and analytically – a key deliverable of that course, which is also occupationally directed. In other words, it’s not academic. You can tell that the course content has been written by senior practitioners – people who have been there and done that – and not people with a more academic approach to the subject; it’s very practical.

Until now, it’s been very much an academic approach, with a number of universities offering very good courses on logistics and transport, but the people who emerge from them are not necessarily able to apply what they’ve learnt at the university in day-to-day decision-making and operations. It’s also been more a question of monkey see, monkey do, than a question of formal training.

While CILT training is not better than anything else, it addresses a specific niche in the supply chain. If you take, for instance, the Chartered Institute of Procurement and Supply (CIPS), they will address procurement, purchasing, sourcing, and similar aspects extremely well but they do not address logistics and transport to sufficient depths for a logistics and transport practitioner.

The CILT courses are recognised and applied by a number of different countries. All CILT content has benefitted from the input of many different experiences throughout the world, with CILT branches communicating with one another and exchanging ideas over a wide field.

CILT is, in a sense, unique, in that other institutions tend to have their examinations set by the mother body and marked and assessed by them whereas, under the CILT model, the local providers are the setters of the assessments in that country. For example, Commerce Edge, which has been accredited by CILT, will set exams in South Africa for South African conditions. The standard is maintained because those are moderated by the mother body, but they are applicable more to South African conditions than, perhaps, an international examination would be.

There will be a number of providers to choose from in the near future, which will enable learners in different areas to access the training. While there is no doubt in my mind that the competitiveness of the industry – the way it is managed – will be improved through the training, I wouldn’t know whether having the training will necessarily create a job for anyone.

Grading
A certificate, diploma, and advanced diploma are offered and pitched at roughly South African NQF levels 5 to 7 candidates – the equivalent of a University degree. The entry requirement is a matric certificate with maths and languages. Geography would be an advantage, but is not essential.

The course could be completed in three years, but I would imagine that someone in a working environment would probably complete it in four to five years. Courses are usually a combination of e-learning and contact/content training (blended learning).

The advanced diploma consists of a research assignment. Many of the assessments are work-based; in other words, it’s a question of producing the work, the evidence that you’ve done the work in the workplace, rather than theoretical exams based on your knowledge of the material. That is a fairly universal trend in all training – to make it more practical.

In South Africa currently, 85% of people who go to University won’t get a job, whereas 85% of people who complete learnerships, which are like apprenticeships, will get a job.

The industry today requires that more decisions be made at lower levels – often out of the competence scope of those employed. CILT South Africa has a major role to play in educating industry bodies about structured pathways.