new competencies and
innovations in logistics

The Internet has become more and more important as a tool in logistic processes. This can take several forms. First, e-business is growing, but besides e-business, corresponding "physical" logistic processes have to be developed. Second, in the logistic process itself, Internet tools can be used to make the process more transparent, e.g. for track and tracing. Third, e-logistics can be offered as a service on its own to customers (e-services).

In 2000 a survey was held in Austria among companies to investigate what kind of areas would be important for training in the area of logistics in the coming years. Striking in this survey was that many issues that scored high were closely linked to e-logistics (e.g. EDI, process-orientation, e-commerce, etc.). Although logistics in general and e-logistics specificly are becoming more and more important, there is clearly a lack in supply of education in this area, as was clearly showed in studies in 1999 en 2001.

The Ministry of Transport, Innovation and Technology has a programme for subsidies of innovative projects in logistics, which is called: Logistik Austria Plus. In this framework a project was started to make a start in filling the lack in logistics education and especially e-logistics. The project was called e-LAB: e-logistics Ausbildung und Entwicklung (e-logistics education and development). The partners were Evoluaris, which is a consultancy in e-business, BVL, which is an employers' organisation in logistics (linked to ELA) and Technikum Joanneum, which is a school for higher vocational education. The partners are complementary with respect to pedagogical knowledge, e-business knowledge and contacts and networks with logistics companies.

The most important goal of this project was to develop a curriculum for an education or training programme in logistics. To achieve this, certain starting points and pre-conditions were chosen. One pre-condition was that the curriculum should be able to serve as a basis for several types of education and training programmes, both in the area of continuing training as well as in initial education. Moreover, the goal was also to reach various types of target groups. One crucial decision to make this possible was to work with a modular structure. This modular structure has a great advantage of flexibility: several courses can select certain modules which best fit their intended programme. Regarding the various target groups: within the modular structure of the curriculum, it is clearly mentioned which modules fit certain defined target groups. To maintain internal consistency, for every module it is also explicated where there are close relations with other modules.

As said above, the curriculum can serve various target groups. Three groups are differentiated, and they are linked to the levels defined by ELA: basic, advanced and professional. The basic levels consist of first line managers, supervisors in an operational role and new entrants in the profession. The advanced level(s) consist of managers or consultants planning, coordinating and controlling different parts of the logistics network. The professional level consists of senior managers, consultants or directors with considerable experience in logistics management. It is clear that the second target group is closest to the assistant function in our study. This is also illustrated by the key outcome that is formulated for the curriculum at this level: "to understand logistics strategies and processes, the interrelationships between and within logistics networks; to have special skills in knowledge and management of processes and projects and to be able to define and optimise the logistics processes within his/her area of responsibility".

An additional pre-condition was that the curriculum would be practical, and closely linked to day-to-day practice in companies. In order to achieve this, a number of market studies of demands of companies was used as a basis for the curriculum. Moreover, an expert team of practitioners was formatted to comment on the curriculum. Finally in this respect it should be mentioned once more that an employers' organisation had an important role in the consortium.

Another pre-condition was that the curriculum would fit international standards and easily be recognised by other countries. In order to achieve this, the curriculum closely follows the directives of the ECBL (European Certification Board for Logistics) of ELA with respect to size, contents and modular structure. Depending on the target group, this could be the levels E J Log (junior level), E M Log (master level) and E S Log (senior level).

The intended output of the project was not only to develop a curriculum, but also to develop e-learning contents for at least a certain part of the curriculum. When developing a curriculum in which the Internet plays such a crucial role, it is logical to use Internet also as a medium for supplying the course. In practice, many people working in logistics work under severe time pressure, which makes it very difficult to plan courses. E-learning has the advantage of supplying courses with flexibility in time and place ("just in time and place"). By building up such e-learning contents, new developments in the area of e-learning must be integrated. Therefore a thorough study was first made about recent developments in this area. Some of the conclusions were that a digital course should follow pedagogical concepts such as "self-learning" (learner centred, making his own choices), offers possibilities for interaction with others and offers enough possibilities to practice and test what is learnt. After the study, the module about supply chain management was translated in an e-learning format.

In table C1 the broad contents of the various modules are presented. As could be expected, new technologies have an important role, for example in the modules IT basics, logistics technology and operational systems, logistics phases and e-Business subsystems. However, the contents are clearly broader and the contents of many of the modules are very much linked to the contents of our assistant's function. Examples are the modules Logistics process management, Logistics planning and control systems, controlling logistics performance, etc.

The most important problem for implementation of the curriculum into new courses, is the lack of experienced teachers. This is a more general problem for implementing new courses in logistics. Logistics is typically an area in which regular teachers are insufficiently trained. So the alternative would be to have teachers coming from companies. However, also from this side the supply is limited. In spite of this, some courses have incorporated parts of the curriculum (see results).

The e-learning module was also tested by a group of students at FH Joanneum. What came out was that the e-learning contents should be developed further, because a number of weak points became clear. The contents were still too text-oriented and used too little other possibilities, such as photos, films, animations, pictures, etc. Moreover, more feedback by for example doing tests could be added.

Part of the curriculum that has been developed, has been used as an input for the course "Logistik Assistent", supplied by WiFi and Bfi, which are two important suppliers of continuing training in Austria. Moreover, some of the modules have also been used for a summer business school course of FH Joanneum, which was one of the partners in the project. The project has also drawn attention from actors in other countries. At the moment there are contacts with the Universities of Magdeburg (Germany), Poznan (Poland) and Besançon (France) to further develop and exchange these types of curricula.

In the framework of the e-LAB project a curriculum was developed which has several parts that are closely linked to the assistant's function selected in the NOVALOG project. The curriculum was developed in a flexible way by developing modules and by differentiating the contents for a number of different target groups at various levels. The contents are developed in such a way that it is close to "the real world", which is partly done by involving practitioners in the field to give comments and giving an employers' organisation a central role in the consortium. Moreover, the curriculum strongly incorporates new ICT developments. Finally, a part of the course was also translated into an e-learning format.

The contents of the course could be used in other countries as well. This is underlined by the fact that universities in other countries are interested in the contents and contacts have been established. Moreover, the curriculum is also developed according to ECBL-directives, which makes recognition in various countries much easier.