The newly developed competency-based curriculum has been presented and received inputs from all the National Curriculum Implementation Committees (NCICs) ready for full roll out training.
Tanzania was the last country to review the draft with discussions focusing on how the updated curriculum emphasizes on the practical skills necessary for industry agents.
There were also concerns on whether the entry level requirements were standard and also to what extent the updated curriculum covered modules on dangerous goods among others. Representatives were drawn from Institute of Tax Administration (ITA), Tanzania Freight Forwarders Association (TAFFA) and Zanzibar Freight Forwarders Bureau (ZFB).
Too, NCICs in Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda held their meetings the previous week. NCIC Burundi was the first country to hold meetings on 25th and 26th of January 2021 and all the countries have up to 10th February to give their final comments for consideration.
Once the curriculum is ready, it will be presented to the Curriculum Implementation Committee (CIC) for a final validation. This will be followed by the development of training materials, training for trainers with a possible full roll out expected before the end of the year.
“Updating of the curriculum is at the final stages and the ground is well set to ensure that the training will be rolled out without any hiccup,” Fred Seka, FEAFFA President said last week.
The project is being sponsored by Trademark East Africa (TMEA) under the EAC Logistics Skills enhancement program. The updating was due to the results of a market survey conducted to identify the training needs of the industry aligned to real labor market needs and opportunities in the freight forwarding operating environment, modern day customs agency and freight forwarding operations and their requisite knowledge, skills, and attitudes.
The Training Need Assessment (TNA) survey assessed the appropriateness of the East Africa Customs and Freight Forwarding Practicing Certificate (EACFFPC) in addressing the needs and requirements of modern-day customs agents, freight forwarders and warehousing operations from the perspective of the employers, customers, and principals.
Other areas of focus were on bench marking the curriculum in its current form with other professional training and capacity building initiatives in other regions.
The curriculum update is building on the existing EACFFPC program by introducing a higher level of learning.
Since 2007 when the EACFFPC training programme was started, over 6000 customs agents and freight forwarders have qualified from the program in the region. TMEA has been supporting the implementation of this programme since 2011 to equip agents with desirable competencies in the discharge of their functions in order to enhance compliance, professionalism and facilitate trade.
In 2019, the Freight Forwarding fraternity adopted a new policy framework that now requires firms seeking customs agency and bonded warehouse license to have at least one manager or CEO or Director holding the EACFFPC in addition to meeting the previous requirement of two staff dealing directly with customs.
