Recruiters are increasingly looking to appoint people with degrees, but even a formal tertiary education does not equip new job entrants with workplace readiness and an innate understanding of the industry, according to Juliette Fourie, CEO of specialist industry training company, Metro Minds. “We believe that simulation and work readiness programmes to address the gap in skills will become more popular. The more practical skills the new recruit arrives with, the better,” she said, adding that while artificial intelligence was “very real”, the freight and logistics industry still needed people to perform certain tasks. “It is not necessarily the technical knowledge that lets the employer down but the behavioural part which is driven by emotions and attitude,” she said. Fourie pointed out that Metro Minds had extended its training programmes from the traditional skills analysis, recruitment, gap year, talent pipeline management offerings into simulated learning spaces and interactive online programmes. “We also still function as a faculty in the higher education space with private universities,” she said.
INSERTION AND CAPTION We focus on close collaboration with the businesses we provide training for. – Juliette Fourie
