High school students now have the opportunity for practical vocational training as logistics specialists in a school warehouse laboratory developed by the Institute of Logistics and Warehousing. Thanks to EU funding, the first implementation has already taken place at School Complex No. 1 in Sokołów Podlaski.
The Institute of Logistics and Warehousing (ILiM) has developed a comprehensive educational package – a school warehouse laboratory, which enables practical logistics training in secondary schools. The developed package was prepared based on the full-scale WMS MaGS1 warehouse management IT system, utilizing GS1 barcodes and portable radio terminals. The package includes automatic identification equipment (five mobile radio terminals connected to a local radio network and two barcode printers) as well as specially designed and prepared packaging marked with GS1 barcode labels and shelving units filling the storage zone.
The element tying the entire package together is a specially developed didactic process illustrating real-life operations carried out in warehouses, provided in the form of a dedicated database along with a description of activities included in the teacher’s manual and the student’s manual.
Working according to the developed scenario, students carry out:
1. Receipt from production.
2. Receipt from external sources.
3. Picking of full-pallet shipments.
4. Picking of mixed shipments.
5. Release of picked materials and inventory of stock levels.
Thanks to the “Logistics Specialist – a profession of the future” project, which was co-financed by the European Union from the European Social Fund (Measure 9.2 POKL), the educational package could be implemented at School Complex No. 1 in Sokołów Podlaski. The laboratory, where students practically handle “real” warehouse processes, is logically and physically divided into an “office” part and a “warehouse” part. Each thematic team carries out its tasks in parallel with the others. Thus, the student functions in conditions simulating a real warehouse, where many important issues are happening at any given moment.
Students will be professionally prepared for professional work in the areas of warehouse logistics. They will be able to operate mobile scanning devices, generate appropriate logistics labels, and exchange data with an external ERP-class IT system.