Mr Thomas Sim is Singaporean by birth, can best be described as a teacher in freight forwarding. Apart from being the founder of The Topocean Group” of Companies in Singapore, he is also a foremost member of the global body of freight forwarders; the Federation of International Freight Forwarding Associations (FIATA). He is a world acclaimed master trainer; having trained freight forwarders in almost all parts of the world. He also conducts capacity-building programmes, training development and management consultancy in the areas of freight, multimodal transport, international trade management, supply chain security, logistics & supply chain management, and IMO-IMDG Hazardous/Dangerous Goods Training for numerous international clienteles.
Recently, he was in Nigeria to help the CRFFN to kick-start its much-expected Training of Trainers (TOT) programme. At the end of highly-demanding programme which drew participants from across the country’s six geopolitical zones, Shipping Position Daily had an exclusive chat with him. Enjoy it.
Can You Please Tell Us About Yourself?
My name is Thomas Sim, I have been an international freight and logistics practitioner over the last 27 years. I have actually been practicing international freight forwarding, logistics, supply chain management competencies in over 85 countries. I work for The Top Ocean Group which is an international logistics company based in Los Angeles in the United State of America and the company has about 28 branches worldwide and are scattered around North America and Asia. The group actually handles containerized cargoes; bulk cargoes, airfreight, and multimodal transport across Trans pacific and Trans Atlantic as well as the European Union .In the additional roles that I play, I am a resource person with the United Nations as Asia Development Bank, I as well carry out capacity building programmes for numerous countries in Central Asia and Eastern Europe, Australia, East Africa and South Africa, Kenya, Ethiopia, Ghana and now we are trying to assist our friends in Nigeria to come up to speed with global training and education methodology for vocational training. Besides we handle a lot of developmental work for associations as well as corporate organization and even government bodies.
I Know That You Have Interacted With A Couple Of Freight Forwarders In Nigeria Since
You Came Into The Country, What Is Your Impression Of The Average Nigerian Freight Forwarder?
I have some brief interactions with the freight forwarding service providers here and I think they have the gift of literacy and spoken English in the day to day business transaction and I understand that it is the official language of government, this is an advantage and this good for the operators to put themselves in the global arena because with this common language platform, even though you may be at the initial stage of development, the services that they render as clearing agents or international freight forwarding practitioners will allow them an opportunity to actually meet with their counterparts outside and we all know in general that Nigeria, being one of the much more developed countries in Africa and especially in West Africa, will become an important gateway for West Africa and we also know that to achieve the hub status, Nigeria’s operators have to be able to understand international competences in freight and logistics service and with this kind of potentials of investment that are coming in and in years to come, you find out that the service provider will need to up his skill to become much more professional so that they can meet international standards.
How Did The Training Programme Go?
The training programme has been intense for the last few days and from my observation, the learners themselves are practitioners and academicians. I found out that they are very high motivation and commitment which could be evidenced from the fact that we spent at least 12 to 14 hours per day to discuss training methodology, to discuss demands and requirement of the trade and from their feedback, I could see that they are very hungry for knowledge and this is very good for your industry. Although many may still be at the basis stage of offering their services, but this means that they will fit in a short time to come.
What Are The Categories Of Persons That You Trained And What Are They Expected To Do After The Programme?
Those that are trained who some of them are already trained and those with experience in their own domains will now put together their minds, we have set up a course planning team under the CRFFN with like minds of ideas and also with targeted time line towards preparing their training structure first, the organization, course plans, lesson plans and training modules , training standards ,evaluation formulas so that they will be able to meet international standards like those of FIATA and with this kind of preparation, there is an objective by the governing council of CRFFN to achieve international validation later on this year, sometime around October 2012 and this is a very demanding timeline. Although it may be seen that we are in the month of January, but in order to fulfill the requirements of such validation, we have about six months to prepare, it’s going to be a very rigorous effort as well as demanding commitment expected from all the trainers that we have trained in the first round of training.
What Is The Meaning Of Validation?
Validation means to actually evaluate the competencies of the training programme developed by the applying association, academy or institution so that it meets international standards of training in our business by a global body.
How Would CRFFN Ensure That This Training Modules That You Have Developed Are Sustained, Is There A Programme To Sustain It?
This is a very good question because sustainability is the key for future growth. Yes, the training actually entails a lot of emphasis on making the programme sustainable by working round future work plans and to ensure that there is continuous learning, continuous train the trainers programme to up skill both the trainers as well as upgrade the training materials ,there will be survey and feedback to be collected from the Nigerian freight and logistics industry, spearheaded by the Council for the Regulation of Freight Forwarding in Nigeria and this will mean that an empirical study will be developed so that policy makers and governing council could make informed decision on what will be the next direction in the operation level ,technical level and strategic level. This will ensure very stable growth in the next five years.
Where Will This Training Take The Nigerian Freight And What Is The Advantage Of The Training To The Average Freight Forwarder?
With my limited knowledge of Nigerians and with the guidance of the local host, I think that Nigeria is a very diversified and big country and with this diversification it means there are many opportunities as well, the country also has many cities and inland ports and these can be the gateways to other countries in African continent which are neighbours of Nigeria. Now with this training perspective in mind, it is my hope that this training will spread out to the day to day operators; that is, the layman so that they will be able to be trained. The initial phase of the plan will actually be the classroom- based training. Beyond the third year, I envisage that the training will go on electronic platform where it is going to be based on e-training because Nigeria is a vast country. And then, we will introduce the methodology of blended learning model. In that way the traditional freight forwarder or the day- to- day operator will be able to send their staff and managers so that they will be able to get the competencies in the work place by themselves. When it becomes an electronic platform, the learner can pick it up anywhere or anytime that he want to as long as they are connected .But having said that and like I mentioned, the first three years of the training will be based on classroom training until the foundation is strong enough. If the data that we collected shows that there is continuous demands, then we will actually introduce e- based learning which is already a norm in most developed nations and with that we hope that the local operators who are members of CRFFN in conjunction with other subsidiary associations will be able to benefit from this training.
What Will Be Your Advice To The Various Associations Who Are Members And Who Are Beneficiaries?
My advice would be that first of all, they should keep themselves in tune with the activities of the council. Now the activities of the council will be the benchmark where they could actually benefit from. The council may be a relatively new organization, but it has very strong governing council members under the direction of the chairman and the registrar. The council has actually demonstrated that it is truly in the direction develop trade facilitation as well as capacity building, for the benefit for the industry. However, I will advice the subsidiary association members from different states and also all over Nigeria to continue to engage the council and continue to keep pace with the development of CRFFN so that they can enjoy the benefits which the council has been working on so hard for the benefit of its own members.
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