The Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA) has finalized development of the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) policy framework and its implementation guidelines and tools in readiness for start of piloting in Uganda and Rwanda planned for this year.
The new training curriculum update, which has been supported by the Trademark East Africa (TMEA) under the EAC logistics skills enhancement program, will ensure that all the East Africa Customs and Freight Forwarding Practicing Certificate (EACFFPC) graduates are kept technically and professionally updated, as the industry takes new and dynamic trends.
The CPD will test three major components; technical competencies, emerging issues and matters on leadership & personal development.
“FEAFFA has already developed the CPD policy framework with the implementation guidelines and tools. The tools will guide the National Curriculum Implementation Committee (NCIC) of national associations of customs agents and freight forwarders in the region in piloting and rolling out the program in their respective countries,” FEAFFA President Mr. Fred Seka told Freight Logistics magazine
Uganda and Rwanda were earmarked for the piloting of the CPD program to ascertain its success before rolling it out fully in the entire East Africa Community (EAC) region. Preparatory meetings for piloting the program have already been held in the two countries. These meetings helped in drawing roadmaps on how the program piloting should be rolled out.
“The focus now is to make sure that the training is in tandem with the current and future market needs and competencies required in the freight logistics sector. Once this is addressed, the newly updated curriculum will be rolled out in the in the EAC region,” Seka said.
The need to reduce freight logistics related costs in the East African region through improved knowledge and skills of freight forwarders, clearing agents and warehouse operators is what has prompted the ongoing review.
Also, the need to enhance professionalism through professional certification of practitioners, the need to enhance compliance to existing regulations to guarantee quality of services offered within the industry and standardizing the industry with a view of making it competitive both regionally and internationally, also persuaded the ongoing review.
FEAFFA will introduce an advanced certificate of higher – level qualification that will build on the success of the EACFFPC program which intends to expose practitioners to global best practices. The training materials will also been updated and a strong warehousing module introduced to address the skills gaps in warehouse management.
Training will also focus on enhancing online learning for customs agents, freight forwarders and warehouse operators through the enhanced FEAFFA Online Resource Centre (FORCE) which currently hosts courses on Rules of origin. This will be critical especially due to existence of Covid-19 pandemic that has affected people relations.
“The portal will ensure that training is available and accessible in many parts of the region,” Seka said, and added that there were plans to integrate this platform with those of the training institutions of the East African Revenue Authorities (EARAs).
Once fully rolled out, training under the new curriculum will be mandatory for industry practitioners in East Africa. Agents will not only be required to attain the minimum professional certification but will also fulfil CPD requirements as a prerequisite for licensing by the revenue authorities.
Since 2007 when the EACFFPC training programme was started, over 6000 customs agents and freight forwarders have qualified from the program in the region. TradeMark East Africa (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.
Initially, TMEA supported implementation of the programme between 2011 and 2014 to accelerate attainment of a critical mass of approximately 4500 trained clearing and forwarding agents or at least two trained persons per licenced customs agent and freight forwarding firm in East Africa.
The ongoing update of the curriculum follows a market survey recently conducted to identify the training needs of the industry aligned to real labour 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 survey also assessed the appropriateness of the 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 benchmarking the curriculum in its current form with other professional training and capacity building initiatives in other regions.
Last year, 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.
