Behind the Scenes

With only a few months left until the launch of the new IMPA foundation course for marine purchasing and supply, Jasmine from the IMPA office interviewed members of the core working group to find out their thoughts about this new initiative.

Many of IMPA’s buyer and supplier members have joined forces to help develop the industry’s first-ever entry-level online marine purchasing education programme. Ideally suited for marine purchasers and suppliers who are new, or relatively new, to the maritime industry, this new course will launch in April 2025 and will offer students a basic-level understanding of the maritime industry and its main players, the key roles in the marine supply chain, the various elements of marine purchasing, procurement and logistics, as well as the more recent developments in technology and sustainability.

Behind this great initiative is a core group of experts with decades of industry experience, both from the purchase and the supply side, who devise the strategy and write the content for the various modules, often with additional assistance from a wider group of highly-skilled professionals who have also volunteered their time for this project. Jasmine Schestak, IMPA Head of Sustainability and Project Management, who manages the development of the project, has brought together the core working group to ask them about this new course, why it was needed and what IMPA will aim with it.

Why has IMPA decided to create a new online, beginner-level course for marine purchasing and supply?

Simon: I remember this project having had been on the agenda of each council meeting of the past five years; we knew all too well there is market demand, but, with limited budgets, it just has not materialised as soon as we would have wanted.

Over the past 10 to 15 years specifically, the shipping industry has experienced several developments that have resulted in a drop in knowledge of the global marine supply chain and its complexities. From a higher turnover in staff to many senior officers no longer returning to the same vessel following their shore leave, these changes often have a direct negative impact to the daily running costs of a vessel and can also create significant inefficiencies within both purchasing and supplier organisations.

As a global platform for collaboration, learning and topical debate, IMPA truly is uniquely positioned to respond to the lack of options available in the market for industry specific procurement training. We have, in our membership community of more than 1000 companies, some of the best and most experienced purchasing and supply professionals in the world. All we had to do—as we do most things at IMPA—is reach out to them and begin working together towards the development of an accessible, entry-level education programme that can train the next generations of procurement leaders.

Susan: I mention this in every single welcome speech and AGM meeting throughout the year—as most of our members have now heard countless times—but education really is the backbone of our Association. We have always tried to invest and secure new training opportunities for our community, budget permitting. As Mandela said, “education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world”, and in our industry which is under constant pressure to change its ways with new emerging technologies and a continuous rise in sustainability regulatory demands, we need brilliant game-changers with a technical, innovative and fresh know-how.

Yuzo Koike: This course is something that the industry really needs. Training junior professionals properly demands significant resources from companies, especially small ones. This course will provide a way for all companies to affordably train their juniors and give them a basic understanding of the trade.

Can you tell us a little bit more about this new course?

Jesper: We are setting this up as a foundation-level course that junior purchasers and suppliers in maritime can take to get an introduction to the trade. Think basics such as types of companies and vessels, key roles and responsibilities among the different offshore and onshore personnel, specifying requirements for different categories of goods and services and supplier relationship management. And we will be making it fun too, with a little dive in the fascinating realm of new technologies promising to transform shipping, as well as the sustainability field and how procurement can have a huge say in how green a company is.

Stephen: The programme will be 100% online, hosted on a known training platform that can be accessed 24/7 by students, with a generous time limit on the length it can take for completion. This will allow students to work a full-time job, for instance, and dedicate themselves to learning in their spare time, whether that is evenings, weekends or even just holidays. We want it to provide a solid understanding of the trade, and it will be a perfect programme even for companies that want to use our course to train their entire cohort of junior purchasers, for instance, not just for individual applicants.

How does this new course differ from the previously run IMPA Course for Certified Buyers that was managed and delivered by IMPA VP of Education Rob Scharff?

Susan: The Certified Buyer course we ran a few years back was a step further in knowledge requirements and required a lot more learning time from students. It had lengthier essay-based assignments and exams, and delved a lot deeper in the strategical value of procurement. This course will be a very practical, hands-on one that students can take in their own time and will only provide a foundation-level knowledge of the trade.

Marco: Make no mistake, however, this course will be comprehensive as well, despite being called a “foundation”. There will be tests, additional reading, quizzes that test your acquired knowledge and plenty of opportunities to delve deeper into topics.

What will this course’s aims be, in a nutshell, and can we expect other education programmes after this?

Jennifer: The overarching goal is to see this course become the “go to” entry-level procurement course for all companies in the shipping industry. We will continue developing it, even after launch, listening to industry feedback, and will always update it to ensure it stays relevant.

Simon: We set it up as a foundation-level programme in such a way that it will allow for dovetailing into more senior-level courses in the future, thus opening new opportunities for both students and IMPA. Depending on its success upon launch, we will definitely be looking at increasingly more in-depth courses.

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Members of the Core Working Group:

Susan Koefoed, Former Head of Fleet, Weco Shipping, and IMPA Chair and CEO

Simon Potter, Chief Procurement Officer, Inchcape Shipping Services, and IMPA VP of Sustainability

Jennifer Schlemeier, Procurement Manager Fleet, Oldendorff Carriers, IMPA VP of Networking

Jesper Alex Larsen, Head of Procurement, OSM Thome, MD of AXIA, and IMPA VP of Insights

Marco Spandri, General Manager, GMS Global Marine Supplies SpA, and IMPA VP of Membership

Yuzo Koike, General Manager, Fuji Trading, and IMPA VP of Marine Stores Guide

Jasmine Schestak, Head of Sustainability and Project Management, IMPA

Stephen Alexander, Secretary General and COO, IMPA