Customised training bridges skills gap

Non-vessel operating common carrier CFR Freight is developing its own customised training programmes to suit its unique needs and these will be available in-house from January next year. “We found that as a consolidation company our needs and requirements were very different from what is currently available as a training programme which was why we used the opportunity to develop our own customised programmes,” said CFR Freight group human resources manager, Laraine Hurst.  According to her, CFR’s product knowledge programmes talk to ocean freight, airfreight, road freight and warehousing.  Hurst pointed out that, in the past, a large part of CFR’s training was operationally focused. “However, our strategy is to address gaps such as IT, finance, HR and leadership management programmes.” She said that the company had also moved towards more bursaries and internships as opposed to its previous emphasis on skills programmes and learnerships. “There has been a huge amount of work on developing programmes to meet the needs of the industry,” Hurst said, commenting that often the challenges lay in sourcing the correct candidates.   CFR Freight’s learnership programmes include supply chain management, generic management (NQF 4 and 5), freight handling, logistics management and financial accounting.  “We also offer occupational degrees, ranging from a threeyear Bachelor of Business Administration (BBA), to Supply Chain NQF 7.  This year CFR has nine unemployed learners, eleven employed learners and has hosted four disabled learners,” said Hurst.