Having a trained supply chain workforce is critical for a high-performing supply chain. And one of the best ways to ensure supply chain professionals have the skills they need is to start in the classroom.
Working closely with the Empower School of Health in Switzerland and the Higher Institute of Medical Techniques (Institute Supérieur des Techniques Médicales (ISTM)) in Kinshasa, VillageReach developed a supply chain curriculum for ISTM students. This curriculum provides the next generation of DRC health workers with a new educational pathway to becoming a supply chain professional.
But before we could train the students, we had to train the teachers.
Building teacher capacity in supply chain management
ISTM Kinshasa teachers during a training session on health product logistics. (Photo Credit: Trésor Amiri Hemedi)
The new curriculum was created to improve knowledge of health products logistics providing DRC with a pipeline of professionally trained health workers with skills in supply chain management. Many health workers in Africa are assigned supply chain responsibilities without any formal training. This is why clear educational and career pathways for health workers who manage health products, it is so critical for ensuring those products are safe and effective at the point of service.
Over the course of three days, we trained 25 ISTM teachers in Kinshasa on health product logistics. Discussions were fruitful, and it was clear early in the training that many teachers did not fully understand international, national and provincial standards for transporting, storing and managing health products. The teachers received the skills and knowledge they needed to support the real-time training of students, ensuring they understand relevant standards before entering the profession.
“This training truly strengthened my skills in logistics and supply chain management,” said Christian Mukindu Njila, a Health Care Institutions Administration and Teaching Assistant in the Healthcare Organization Management Section (Health Logistics program) at ISTM Kinshasa. “The knowledge gained from this training led me to guide and motivate certain candidates wishing to pursue their higher education and university studies to choose health care logistics.”
Long-term Commitment to a Professionalized Supply Chain Workforce
Certificate presentation ceremony for participants in the health product logistics training. Photo Credit: Trésor Amiri Hemedi
The success of this training has created a small core of health care product logistics teachers who can sustainably carry forward this knowledge to other teachers and students. Through our partnership with Empower School of Health, we hope to expand this training to other ISTMs across DRC, creating a sustainable pipeline of locally trained supply chain professionals working to improve the health care supply chain across the country.
This new curriculum represents a significant step forward in VillageReach’s commitment to building responsive primary health care systems, which need high-performing supply chains with trained staff to ensure health products are available when and where they are needed. Building a professionalized supply chain workforce in DRC strengthens the country’s health system – ultimately improving health outcomes and immunization rates, allowing DRC health workers to respond to evolving community health needs.