Guyanese entrepreneurs will, from March this year, have access to a training programme in Supply Chain Manage-ment designed by the Geneva-based International Trade Centre (ITC).
The training programme will enable them to have a more complete understanding of the overall strengths and weaknesses of their enterprises and to make the adjustments and interventions necessary to improve efficiency and profitability.
The Modular Learning System in Supply Chain Manage-ment (MLS-SCM) has been applied with significant success in several countries including China, Nigeria, Indonesia and Thailand. It seeks to provide modest business enterprises with the know-how that could simultaneously equip them to reduce costs, respond to export markets, be effective links in global supply chains and stay competitive at the local and international levels.
The six-month, 18-module programme, which commences in March is being offered by EMPRETEC Guyana in collaboration with the ITC and includes instructions and text materials in a range of disciplines including understanding the corporate environment, negotiating, customer relationship management, group purchasing, managing inventory, managing finance along the supply chain and measuring and evaluating performance.
Managing Director of EMPRETEC Guyana, Judy Semple-Joseph told Stabroek Business in an interview earlier this week that the programme is likely to be particularly useful to entrepreneurs in the manufacturing sector who were interested in securing “a holistic understanding of the key considerations that impact on efficiency and productivity with a view to improving profitability.” She said she expected that some participants in the programme were likely to encounter levels of training that they may not have previously experienced. The programme offers access to internationally validated materials, quality trainers as well as internationally recognized professional certification.
“What the Supply Chain Management Programme seeks to do is to help participants understand every link in the chain of their particular enterprise, from those links that have to do with production to those that have to do with marketing, whether it be locally or overseas. It is not uncommon for some modest businesses to pay attention to particular aspects of their operations while remaining relatively ill-informed about others. What has been found in some cases, for example, is that small exporters may focus on the production side of their businesses while understanding relatively little about the dynamics of the international market. What the Supply Chain Management Programme seeks to do is to equip those entrepreneurs with a seamless understanding of all of the aspects of the business in which they are involved,” Semple-Joseph said.
She said the programme will be executed by local professionals who have already received training in SCM and who, even now, will be using the opportunity of the availability of the programme in Guyana to further upgrade their qualifications.
Semple-Joseph said she hoped that those business houses interested in the programme would do more than simply send employees. “We believe that the nature of this programme requires that managers and owners participate in the programme themselves since the whole idea is to help them to develop a more holistic understanding of the businesses that they own and manage.”
The six-month programe will be followed by a one-month evaluation exercise.
The ITC has been offering its modular learning programme in Supply Chain Management since 2000 under the theme of buying into competitiveness and Semple-Joseph told Stabroek Business she believed the programme was being offered at a time when the local business community was becoming increasingly concerned with both domestic and global competitiveness and when the export sector needed to know a great deal more about the global market environment.
