Amman - July 27, 2017 

 

On Thursday 27 July 2017, GJU Vice President Prof. Dorit Schumann, accompanied by the acting Dean of SMLS Dr. Malek Alsharairi, three other academic SMLS staff, and a representative from the Office for Industrial Links, visited ALV and were given an extensive tour through the facilities of the Aqaba Logistics Village, guided by ALV Chairman Dr. Amin Kawar and General Manager Hakam Abul Feilat.

ALV, with its 68 permanent staff members, offers a broad range of services to companies. It was agreed to develop a “special ALV module” for first-year Logistics students, and to integrate it after successful testing into GJU’s Dual Study BSc in Logistics. A few preselected students shall be given the chance to join a pilot of this module already in coming September. ALV also voiced great interest in training for its middle and higher management. For this end, GJU will carry out a needs assessment, to inquire about areas, formats and required levels of training.

The delegation also paid short visits to two other important stakeholders in the Aqaba Special Economic Zone: The Aqaba Container Terminal (ACT), which is since 2005 operated, managed and marketed by APM Terminals, one of the world’s largest global terminal operators, and the Aqaba Development Corporation (ADC), the development arm of the Jordanian government for the Aqaba region. ADC stressed the importance to invest in people from the area and therefore showed great interest in GJU’s and ALV’s cooperation and mentioned that it would fully support the idea to carry out GJU’s Logistics Network Meeting 2018 in Aqaba, at the premises of the ALV.

All participants unanimously considered the visit and the intensive discussions as very fruitful, outlining the great potential of cooperation between ALV and GJU. SMLS staff will now work intensively on shaping the first pilot ALV module, as part of the Dual Study program, and on the preparation of a workshop to conduct a training needs analysis of ALV staff.