One of the primary challenges facing any educated workforce is a lack of real-world industry experience among students and recent graduates.
And while logistics is certainly not exempt from this challenge, Michael White and his colleagues at Florida International University College of Business are actively solving it. White, executive-in-residence at FIU Business, is offering his decades of experience in the air cargo sector to students.
“What we’re trying to do,” White said about his mission at FIU Business, “is to bring reality back to the classroom.”
While many students might enroll in business school without much business acumen, White encountered the opposite problem early in his career: He was without a clear career path after entering the industry, lacking a broader understanding of how all the links of the supply chain fit together.
The true benefit of a program like FIU Business’, then, is the coupling of a theoretical understanding of supply chains with experiential learning. FIU Business’ partners encompass a wide and multimodal swath of the logistics industry, enabling students to take part in paid internships while pursuing a degree.
Such partnerships tend to benefit all involved, White argues. “The industry is looking for new blood. When you have the opportunity to be involved with the students, you realize that they’ve got a lot of new ideas.”
A common refrain among professionals in the logistics sector is that they were either born into it or stumbled into it. FIU Business instead seeks to recruit passionate and bright individuals to supply chain management by raising awareness of the industry and its advantages. No small part of this effort can be found in the college’s outreach to high school students.
“Some might say that the logistics world is not so exciting,” White said, “but we do things that make the world turn.”
Click here to learn more about Florida International University College of Business.