By William Hamilton
PBN Staff Writer
SOUTH KINGSTOWN - The University of Rhode Island College of Business Administration has become the first program in New England – and the 22nd nationwide – to earn a certification in transportation and logistics from the American Society of Transportation and Logistics, URI announced today.
The certification comes just one year after the business college established a supply chain management major.
Other schools with the certification include Ohio State University, the University of Maryland, Pennsylvania State University and the University of Tennessee.
“The schools that have the blanket certification are all leading business schools in the country,” said Doug Hales, assistant professor of supply chain management at URI. “This is a fast-growing industry, and URI is certainly ahead of the curve in the New England region.”
Now URI supply chain management students can be certified by the American Society of Transportation and Logistics upon graduation, if they take electives within the major.
“Many companies prefer this certification as a contingency for employment,” Hales said. “New graduates from our program will be more attractive because they already have their certification, and they will have more real-world experience in their field.”
The American Society of Transportation and Logistics has a Chinese branch, giving URI an affiliation on an international scale.
“Customers in the supply chain management industry are global. Suppliers are global,” Hales said. “That is how our students think. We can’t just think nationally.”
The supply chain management major began at URI in fall 2007. Made possible through a grant received by the URI Transportation Center, the major encompasses the strategic planning, design, operations and improvement of all activities involved in the procurement, manufacture and delivery of goods and services to meet customer requirements.
URI also created an advisory council with executives from several companies, including CVS Caremark Corp., Hasbro Inc., Ocean Spray Cranberries Inc. and Coastal Extreme Brewing Co., makers of Newport Storm.
So far, 25 students have declared supply chain management as a major, including six incoming freshman. Eventually the program could have up to 50 students, URI said.
In August, Jennifer Wilcoxon became the first student to earn the supply chain management degree from URI, and within days accepted a job with Raytheon Co. A double major in international business and supply chain management, Wilcoxon had multiple job offers, including one from Boeing Co.
“There are exciting job opportunities in this field,” Hales said. “The work we are doing shows that our students are being well trained and ready to enter the work force.”
The transportation and logistics certification is the second earned by the URI’s College of Business Administration in the last year. In November 2007, URI became just the 13th U.S. university to be named a chartered financial analyst program partner by the CFA Institute.
