The course, done in collaboration with the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, comes at a time the government has embarked on an ambitious drive to upgrade and develop key ports of Colombo and Hambantota, in the south.

The course will cover all aspects of logistics which will include multimodal transport, shipping, international documentation, international trade and all related subjects.

It will give a broad understanding to the students the different aspects of global commerce and how it links to the supply chain on an end to end basis, Shippers’ Academy chief executive Roham Masakorala said.

This is also the first industry initiative to formalise a career path to students and industry personnel who have completed and passed O/L or with relevant experience in the field.

The career path has three segments, where a three month certificate course will lead to a requirement fulfilment of the Director Merchant Shipping to hold a license to operate a logistics company in Sri Lanka.

Students who complete the course are eligible to enter a nine-month advanced certificate course in Shipping and Logistics offered at the Institute of Human Resource Advancement (IHRA), University of Colombo (UOC), which starts in 2013.

The first intake will commence studies on August 24.