‘Industry must be marketed at school level’

Too few job-seekers and graduates really understand what the freight industry is about, with the result that few choose it as a career option, says Juliette Fourie, managing director of Metro Minds. “They are not being exposed to freight forwarding. There is little exposure at schools and tertiary institutions.” She believes it is important to market the industry more at school level as well as at universities and colleges across the country. “The other challenge that we face,” says Fourie, “is that once people have been working in the industry and acquiring skills, they are not necessarily exposed to the entire trade cycle but only to a small portion of it. This means they can for instance frame a customs entry or do an estimate very well, but that is all they know. They do not know or always understand the effect it has when it has been done incorrectly and why it needs to be done." Fourie believes the answer to these challenges lies in ensuring that everyone entering the industry has gone through a proper introduction in terms of business and technical skill. “We understand that a lot of companies do not have the luxury of training people for months and that is why we at Metro Minds have a mission to provide the industry with a type of school or college where recruitment can take place from a pool of talent which we would have identified through our programmes.” Fourie also believes that the fact that South African students can now again obtain the Fiata Diploma should be a very good motivator for employees and employers to get their staff through the level 3 & 4 Freight Forwarding & Customs qualifications, enabling them to apply for the Diploma.