Shippers' Academy Colombo turns five

The Shippers' Academy Colombo (SAC) known as the school of business for global commerce and logistics completed five years last month.

In 2010, the concept originated in Singapore where Singapore Shippers' Academy which was set up with the support of International Enterprise (IE) Singapore to build capacity and skills of Singaporeans. IE is the government agency driving Singapore's external economy.

The Shippers' Academy, was set up to address the lack of training programs and information related to global commerce and logistics with a home grown design to suit each country's requirements for training and capacity building for shippers and related communities in trade and logistics. Since its launch in 2011, SAC has actively engaged in industry developments and today its contribution plays a pivotal role in the trade, logistics and shipping industry locally and is expanding in the South Asian region. CEO Rohan Masakorala said, "We don't do capacity building in a traditional manner. We think different to make a difference.

Chairman of the Singapore National Shippers Council John Lu helped me a lot to get the SAC going and running, it was his influence and guidance that gave us the successful start."

People involved in international trade and logistics need to be up-to-date, and SAC provides and develops short courses and workshops to improve the industry knowledge and give them updates on current developments in trade and logistics related to the world and the country.