The freight industry is like standing on the edge of world trade overlooking and facilitating everything in this cycle. The possibilities and opportunities are endless for those who choose it for a career, says Juliette Fourie, director of training specialists Metro Minds. “With a freight forwarding learnership one gets an idea of business in its totality – finance, insurance, forwarding, customs, sales, supply chain and general business etiquette.
From this sound foundation it becomes much easier to make a decision on a career specialisation,” she told FTW. “In freight, you can create a very clear career path for yourself.” Her advice to anyone considering a career in freight is that any education is beneficial. Asked about the skills situation in the freight and logistics sector at present Fourie said it was “very interesting and focuses more on specialised skills as well as applied knowledge of the basic operational skills”.
“Industry complains about operational personnel being able to do normal shipments, but the moment a solution needs to be provided or there is a problem with a client, they do not know how to approach this or solve the problem,” she says. “Skills such as solution-driven sales skills are a challenge for companies as they believe there are a lot of great salespeople in the industry, but their approach to giving the client a solution and selling the company’s benefits are lacking.”
Fourie maintains it is imperative that their service offerings always align with the scarce and critical skills identified by industry – whether it is something as technical as customs or something as simple as basic calculations. “We are very passionate about learnerships because it not only gives the organisation their financial benefit on tax, funding and BEE, but is also a successful induction program, a career pathing tool and the empowering of new skill,” she says.
The opportunities are endless. – Juliette Fourie
