SA and Belgium jointly launch supply chain course

Clive Emdon
THE TRANSPORT Education and Training Authority (Teta) and its Belgian counterpart have launched a 2-year supply chain management diploma course at an advanced level that will be recognised in both countries. Other partners in the project are the University of Johannesburg and the University of Liege in Belgium. Each will provide half of the academic curriculum, while the learners will complete on-the-job training through the Teta at the National Qualifications Framework (NQF) Level 6 – equivalent to a post-graduate qualification. Twenty South African students selected for the course began last week while a similar number will start their course through the Cluster Transport & Logistique of the Walloon region of southern Belgium. "Both Belgium and South Africa have explicit needs for capacity building," Belgian ambassador Jan Mutton said at the launch last week. The jointly developed course is the first of its kind between the two countries and could be enhanced by bringing Central Africa (DRC) into the programme, he said. Dr Piet Bothma, CEO of the Teta, said the course was the culmination of two years of real partnership and the development of a sound relationship between the institutions involved. According to Prof Jackie Walters, chairman of the Department of Transport and Supply Chain Management at the University of Johannesburg (formerly Rand Afrikaans University), his department has trained 37 000 people in industry-focused programmes since 1980. The newly-launched programme was the forerunner to specialised supply chain degree programmes in South Africa and would serve as a pilot project to these, he added.