As part of its ongoing drive to promote excellence in supply chain management, SAPICS, The Professional Body for Supply Chain Management, is once again hosting the annual Supply Chain Management Education Excellence Awards, and is looking for nominations of individuals, organisations and educators who have played an exceptional role in the development of supply chain education in Southern Africa.

These awards, now in their 11th successful year, recognise and reward excellence in supply chain management education, and are aimed at raising awareness of efforts to develop the profession’s people capabilities.

“The supply chain skills crisis is very real, and impacting businesses right now,” stresses SAPICS president Mungo Park. He notes that the factors contributing to the skills gap include retiring “baby boomers”, the profession’s image and its changing job requirements. “Many of the people who entered the supply chain management profession at its inception are now at retirement age. Because it is sometimes misunderstood and undervalued, the supply chain management profession is not attracting the young, emerging talent that it needs. Supply chain management is also a constantly evolving and changing profession.

We are seeing the rapid introduction of new technologies, and businesses are struggling to find people with the required skills sets,” he expands.

“Supply chain management education and skills development must be prioritised because the supply chain is a vital function in every organisation,” Park asserts. “It is the one function that touches all others. It can be used as the organisational business integrator, since supply chain improvements have beneficial effects for other business functions. As more companies recognise the value of a well managed supply chain, and its potential to drive bottom line improvement, there will be an even greater demand for skilled people to enable supply chain optimisation.”

The Supply Chain Management Education Excellence Awards honour individuals, organisations and learning institutions that have heeded the call to tackle the skills deficit and have made a substantial contribution to skills development in the supply chain field, Park adds.

The awards cover six categories. The individual categories are “Vocational Student of the Year”, “Higher Education Student of the Year”, “Supply Chain Professional of the Year” and “Facilitator/Educator of the Year”. Organisations are invited to enter the “Corporate Educator of the Year”, which is sponsored by Goscor. The “Training/Education Provider of the Year” Award is sponsored by Trackmatic.

The submission deadline for entries in the 2018 Supply Chain Management Education Excellence Awards is Friday, 5 October 2018 at 16:30. The awards event will take place in Johannesburg on the evening of 8 November 2018.