A major shortage of suitable logistics personnel at college and university level is looming in the coming years. Especially SMEs and companies with less brand recognition will have to deal with unfilled vacancies. A solution to the shortage could be found in broadening logistics education.
So concludes research firm Panteia in the study 'Labour Market and Education Logistics', commissioned by the Top Sector Logistics. The number of vacancies for higher logistics personnel is expected to grow by more than 21 per cent between 2015 and 2020. Meanwhile, the labour market inflow of college and university graduates increases by 9 per cent over the same period. The result is a shortage of highly skilled workers. Work planners and planners are particularly in demand. These occupations account for a quarter of the total number of vacancies. In 2016, some 20 per cent of vacancies in the professions of planner, work planner and manager purchasing, logistics and distribution were already hard to fill, Panteia concluded.
There is also an upgrading of senior logistics professions. Logisticians are expected to be increasingly flexible, all-rounder and more broadly deployable. The social element in work is getting stronger. "The logistician of the future will therefore have to have a 'T-shaped profile' (combination of hard and soft skills). Both incumbent personnel and logistics education are currently insufficiently equipped to meet the above changing/higher requirements," says Panteia. Another bottleneck is the employer image of logistics. This image is more favourable than in the past, but there is still room for improvement. Young people are still said to be unaware of the opportunities offered by logistics. Moreover, many companies in logistics are still managed in a traditional way (top-down). This would not match the wishes and needs of the higher educated belonging to Generation Y.
'Business and education need to work more closely together'
Based on the interviews with experts, Panteia also suggests a number of solution directions. One of the main points is an adaptation of logistics education. For instance, education parties and the business community should work more closely together. "The logistics industry has an interest in having the right number of graduates with the right diploma. This calls for adequate cooperation between logistics education and business, both on a national and regional level."
Broadening logistics courses
The interviewees in the study argue for a broadening of logistics training courses, so that, for example, attention is also paid to soft skills. "In the coming years, automated systems and robots in logistics will take over more and more functions at the lower intermediate vocational school levels. HBO graduates in particular will then increasingly be expected to be able to manage a team consisting of these robots and MBO graduates at the higher levels. This will require broader knowledge in which (promoting) cooperation, managing people and projects and maintaining customer contacts will become increasingly important." Broadening education would also make logistics more attractive to women and less technically oriented men. "Moreover, broadening increases graduates' fall-back options, should one not find employment in logistics."
Image improvement
In addition, both industry and education should make efforts to improve the image of logistics. This can be done by providing better information to logistics students, promotion in secondary schools and information to parents. Secondary school students would only be informed about courses in logistics in the fourth year. According to the researchers, this is far too late. "This should be started much earlier, especially also because logistics lags behind fields of study that directly connect to subjects in secondary school."
Read the full report here.
Editorial LogistiekProfs
