Logistics Skills Transparency

The transport and storage services sector is a vital sector of the European economy. In 2009, with approximately 533 billion Euros of gross value added (GVA), equating to 5.1% of EU-27 total GVA, this sector accounted for approximately 5% of all jobs within the European Union. It therefore plays a crucial role in linking economic players.

Inspiration

The "Europe 2020" strategy stresses the importance of education and training in order to promote intelligent, sustainable and inclusive growth. Forecasts of future skills needs show increased demand for medium and high level qualifications up until 2020 (source: European Commission, 2009). EU member states still employ different approaches for defining knowledge, skills and qualifications in the transport and storage services sector. Certified training or qualification varies according to the differences in the recognised knowledge and skills needed to competently perform professional occupations in the different member states.

Innovation

Logistics Skills Transparency is a collaborative project stemming from the Lifelong Learning programme, Leonardo da Vinci action, Innovation Transfer sub-action, which brings together partners from Luxembourg, Slovakia, Bulgaria, France and Italy. The project aims to create training programmes designed for two selected occupations: warehouse manager (in the pharmaceutical logistics sector) and freight handler. To this end, the partners will draw on the approach used in the previous Innovation Transfer (CENTRAL) project, adopting its work method. The general project objectives are to adapt and create professional standards for these two occupations as well as to coach trainers in this new method. Educational standards will also be defined based on the principles of the European credit system for vocational education and training (ECVET) in order to establish transparent educational results which aptly describe knowledge, aptitudes and skills.

The Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST) is the coordinator for the project and responsible for project quality and management. At the same time, the Centre is responsible for the deployment of a qualification framework in order to guarantee the best possible understanding in terms of content transfer and to help transpose related concepts and tools to the partners' respective environments.

Impact

The project is expected to impact the transport and logistics sector in several ways. Firstly, a training programme for the positions of warehouse manager (pharmaceutical logistics) and freight handler will be launched, with ECVET transfer credits allocated. The project results will help contribute to promoting the use of the European ECVET system as well as to creating professional standards and setting up coaching in this new method for trainers. To achieve these objectives, the mapping of required skills and knowledge will be drawn up for Luxembourg by the Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission.
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