PETALING JAYA: PortsWorld, a leading Malaysian maritime and logistics research and consultancy company, has embarked on an initiative to provide an internationally-recognised Masters in Business Administration (MBA) in logistics and maritime industry via collaboration with the University of Northampton, United Kingdom.
PortsWorld Managing Director G.Durairaj said working adults with mariners’ qualifications namely ship captains, chief engineers and certificate of competency (COC) holders, can now pursue the specialised course offered by the university, exclusively in Malaysia, by PortsWorld.
He said the course was now available at PortsWorld’s learning centre in Klang and Kuala Lumpur.
“The course is catered to help meet the demand for specialised human capital in Malaysia’s logistics and maritime industry.
“There is a large gap in the supply of professional and qualified manpower in the rapidly-expanding logistics and maritime industry and it is hoped that our international MBA would help contribute, in its own way, in meeting the human resource demand of the industry,” he told Bernama.
PortsWorld has developed a three-module bridging programme that would provide the pathway to the MBA which could be fast-tracked by holders of COC 1 and above, as well as, by graduates with working experience.
He said those eligible under this route, which takes into account the “recognition of prior learning” pathway, would be able to complete the MBA within seven months with the submission of a dissertation.
“Industry practitioners with working experience but without a first degree and those with COC2 and COC3 would also be able to pursue the MBA, which would take 15 months, including completing a British government approved eight-module core programme,” Durairaj said, adding that the MBA initiative involved close collaboration with Qualifi Ltd (UK) and Klaspad (UK).
PortsWorld planned to hold a series of previews on the MBA with the first one to be held in Kuala Lumpur on Dec 19.
In a related development, Durairaj, who served as the Subject Matter Expert for the EPU-commissioned Logistics and Trade Facilitation Master Plan (2015-2020), said there was an annual deficit of more than 30,000 trained personnel and professionals to meet the growing demand in Malaysia’s maritime and logistics industry. — Bernama