In the next few decades, the baby boomer generation, those born between 1946 and 1964, will retire from the workforce and so will their skills. This is already beginning to create a shortage of skills in the worldwide workforce. Generation X or the neXt generation will need to be ready to fill the skills gap, says Dave Walls, National Training Manager, Safcor Panalpina.
"Some parts of the world are more attractive than others when it comes to skills. These 'Skill magnets', include countries such as, China, India, Dubai, Ireland and Australia. South Africa is competing with the rest of the world for these skills," he says.
"Not only is South Africa affected in general by this phenomenon, but more specifically the Supply Chain industry within South Africa is particularly affected, with Safcor Panalpina being directly affected. It is important that we understand and accept this challenge and position our company in such a way as to attract and retain the best talent available in our industry."
Walls says there are many reasons why staff stay with Safcor Panalpina and new staff are attracted to the company and the number one reason remains, that it offers extensive education and development training.
"We need to be able to directly influence the training that is taking place in our industry to ensure that the right skills are made available and this is why Safcor Panalpina has decided to establish its own Academy.
"It is the intention of the Academy to provide industry skills training that meets the unit standards for our industry. We will do this through having industry experts who are willing to share their knowledge with our business, provide course content that is aligned with the unit standards and give our industry experts training skills (Train the Trainer). They say that the best way to learn a subject is to teach it to somebody else and there is no doubt that this also brings about a sense of pride and personal reward.
"The Academy will build relevant skills in our company, it will address our industry skills gap and it will help our staff deliver better service to our customers. The responsibility of learning will still belong to the individual," says Walls.
The Academy will offer a variety of courses and it has recently provided the first training with Sean McSweeney, HR Director, Safcor Panalpina, delivering a course on "Managing Discipline and Dismissal" in Cape Town and Port Elizabeth.