The Federation of East African Freight Forwarders Associations (FEAFFA) is set to roll out the Continuing Professional Development (CPD) training programme in Uganda, where the project is expected to commence on a pilot basis.
The Federation has already engaged the services of a Public Relations expert who is meant to market and publicize CPD activities in Uganda and promote uptake of the programme in the country.
FEAFFA is also working on a CPD system that will coordinate the piloting activities that are expected to take place in Rwanda as well. The system will capture all records of the program including training, award and recording of CPDs. The system will also have a database of East African Customs and Freight Forwarding Certificate (EACFFPC) graduates and trainers of the EACFFPC course and information of the CPD points for each of the graduates. The training will be coordinated by the National Curriculum Implementation Committee (NCIC) in Uganda and a schedule has been prepared to be distributed when conducting publicity.
As part of the preparations for piloting, a roadmap on how the program will be piloted was also developed last year. The roadmap included the development of a comprehensive stakeholder analysis and mapping, a training needs assessment (TNA) and a CPD calendar.
Preparations for the official launch are also in top gear with the identification of trainers ongoing. Once identified, trainers will prepare teaching materials. Practitioners will be expected to attend workshops after which CPD points will be awarded accordingly. Information about details of participants, their corresponding CPD points, trainers, calendar of CPD per year among others will be available on the CPD system being developed.
During the piloting, participants will be expected to pay fees as will be determined by NCIC Uganda.
The introduction of the CPD training among freight forwarders in East Africa is part of the EAC logistics skills enhancement program that is being supported by TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) in partnership with FEAFFA.
The need for CPD follows realization that upon completion of the certificate program, most of the EACFFPC graduates have no mechanism to keep abreast with the unprecedented dynamics in the logistics industry. This greatly impacts on the quality of logistics services they provide to their clients.
CPD aims to 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 and personal development. Freight Logistics Industry practitioners will be expected to have a minimum number of CPD hours per year as part of the requirements for the renewal of their customs agency licenses.
“FEAFFA already developed the CPD framework with the implementation guidelines and tools. The tools will guide the NCICs 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 said an earlier interview.
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.
Under the EAC Logistics Skills enhancement program, FEAFFA is also updating the EACFFPC curriculum by introducing an advanced certificate of higher – level qualification that will build on the success of its training interventions which intend to expose practitioners to global best practices.
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 a course-units on Rules of origin and HIV/AIDs. This will be critical due to Covid 19 pandemic that has affected physical training.
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.
TNA 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 bench marking the curriculum in its current form with other professional training and capacity building initiatives in other regions.
