– For several years now, logistics has been present in the curricula of secondary and post-secondary schools. This is gratifying because the educational chain of logistics training has thus become complete. However, schools, students, and teachers need support so that the educational content is consistent with what we teach at the university level. Textbooks, teaching materials, and various forms of teacher training are also needed – notes Assoc. Prof. Ireneusz Fechner, Chancellor of the WSL. – The Poznań School of Logistics is not indifferent to these needs. We treat teachers of secondary and post-secondary schools as partners, and students as subjects of our genuine interest. And there is no courtesy in this, because we want to influence the quality of logistics education in the stages preceding studies at the Poznań School of Logistics and the preparation of candidates for studies. Hence the various forms of cooperation with schools and the idea for a logistics olympiad, which will strengthen students’ interest in learning logistics. Thanks to the olympiad, our contacts with secondary and post-secondary vocational education will be even closer, and participation in the olympiad will be an additional reward for students for choosing this profession.
Students from over 200 schools across the country, training in the professions of “logistics technician” and “freight forwarder technician,” have been invited to participate in the Olympiad. The Olympiad is divided into three stages. The first (November 27, 2008) will take place in schools. By solving a single-choice test prepared by the scientific committee, students will have to demonstrate, among other things, knowledge of logistics terminology, skills in managing orders, purchases, deliveries, and warehouses, and show an understanding of techniques and technologies in logistics processes. The second, regional stage (January 5, 2009), will be devoted to transport and forwarding. Here, knowledge will also be tested in the form of a test, but this time a multiple-choice one. Students will compete in individual regions across different parts of the country.
The final of the 1st National Logistics Olympiad will take place on March 20, 2009, in Poznań, at the headquarters of the Poznań School of Logistics. The thematic scope will cover all the material that a student of a profiled high school should have mastered during several years of study. Instead of a test, the olympiad participants will solve open-ended tasks.
The winners can expect not only valuable material prizes (including laptops) but also an exemption from the written part of the vocational examination in the professions of “logistics technician” and “freight forwarder technician,” as well as free first and second-cycle studies at the Poznań School of Logistics. The best upper secondary school whose students participate in the first edition of the Olympiad will also be awarded.
– For teachers and schools, the olympiad will be an important field for verifying the quality of education. Schools will be able to compare the results of their work in direct competition of students for Olympic laurels and the associated prizes, the most important of which for winners and finalists will be the right to be exempted from the written part of the vocational examination, which, along with the matura exam, concludes education in these schools – notes the university chancellor, Assoc. Prof. Ireneusz Fechner.
Anna Wawruch-Lis, a teacher from the Transport and Communication School Complex in Lublin, whose students have expressed their desire to participate in the 1st National Logistics Olympiad, agrees with the WSL chancellor:
– A great idea. Students training in the professions of “freight forwarder technician” and “logistics technician” will finally have a chance to test their knowledge. Because tests and quizzes don’t quite give them that chance – she notes. – Twenty of my students have expressed a desire to participate in the project. Mainly from the third and fourth grades.
Candidates for participation in the 1st National Logistics Olympiad are designated by schools. Then, the management, or those responsible, fill out the form located on the website http://szkolysrednie.wsl.com.pl/ and register their students’ desire to participate in the national event. Detailed information regarding the logistics competition organized by the WSL can also be found on the website.
The substantive partners of the Olympiad are: The Institute of Logistics and Warehousing and the Polish Logistics Association. Media patronage was provided by: the magazine “Logistyka” (main patron), the portal logistyka.net.pl, “Polska Gazeta Transportowa”, the daily “Polska Głos Wielkopolski”, Kariera.com.pl, and Studentnews.pl.