ICS adds face-to-face training option

IN AN era when the words “acute skills shortage” and “training” are very much a part of the everyday vocabulary of anyone in the SA shipping industry, the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers (ICS) has made a committed move into further fostering skills training in its industry sector. At its Durban-based centre, the institute is about to add a completely new face-to-face training programme to its successful history of correspondence learning – with a specific emphasis in its new curriculum for SA- and industryspecific courses. Eight industry leaders have compiled the learning material, designed for the needs of the SA ships' agents and brokers industry. A strong team of facilitators, assessors and a moderator has been assembled with Carol Knox the ICS project manager. With the ratification of the further education and training (FET) subcommittee, the quality management system has been submitted for approval to the Transport Education and Training Authority (Teta). Following the Teta evaluation site visit on March 6, Knox told FTW: “We are being recommended for provisional accreditation at the Teta quality assurance meeting on March 26. Thereafter, the ratifying committee will sit about one month later. “But this will be more-or-less a formality, and we have been advised that we will be able to start training around end-April, beginning of May.” The new outcomes-based education (OBE) programme will be composed of eight unit standards (skills programmes) which will be rolled out during the year, with the first – “Apply Maritime Geography, number 117685” – already Teta approved. “These skills programmes, which ultimately lead to the FET certificate in shipping, will not be assessed by exams,” said Knox, “but from the portfolio of evidence compiled by each candidate – both during the training and on-site where necessary.”