TAMIU Receives Grant to Expand Certificate Program in Transportation, International Trade, and Logistics

Texas A&M International University (TAMIU) recently received a Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board Accelerating Credentials Planning Grant Program Award to plan the expansion of its current A. R. Sanchez Jr. School of Business undergraduate-level certificate in Transportation, International Trade, and Logistics (TIL).

The project director for the $50,000 award is Dr. Daniel Covarrubias, Texas Center for Economic and Enterprise Development director.

Dr. Covarrubias said the current TIL certificate will undergo a planning phase to be expanded in order to continue contributing to the professionalization of the transport and logistics sector in the cross-border region, South Texas and México.

The TIL certificate program is offered as a stand-alone credential to both community members who are not TAMIU students and to TAMIU students who are working towards a TAMIU Bachelor of Business Administration degree.

The program is designed for either current or past business majors who would like to secure an easy entry into International Trade and associated careers in Customs Broking, Logistics, and Customs and Border Protection services, Covarrubias said.

The program is open to non-business students with at least two years of work experience beyond a high school diploma in international trade and associated activities with the approval of the admissions committee, Covarrubias said.

The expansion of this certificate aims to provide the latest advances in knowledge, skills, and practices in transportation, logistics, and supply chain. It will provide participants with turnkey knowledge, methods, and tools, which will allow the immediate implementation of dynamic actions to improve the sustainability, agility, and resilience of supply chains, Covarrubias said.

"With this expanded TIL certificate, we are looking to increase the supply of professionals trained in transportation, international trade, logistics, and supply chain in our cross-border region and South Texas," Covarrubias said, "For this project, we will create a plan to develop two new core courses for the TIL certificate program—one in Digital Logistics and another in Supply Chain Localization and Resilience Analysis."

The Digital Logistics course will allow students to learn about the fourth industrial revolution and how it enables companies to be more productive and efficient by optimizing, monitoring, automating, and adapting processes, Covarrubias explained.  It will also permit students to identify exponential technologies and understand how they have entirely transformed today's business world.

In the course covering Supply Chain Localization and Resilience Analysis, students will understand best practices in supply chain management and learn to map resilient strategies for managing increasing volatility, unpredictability, complexity, ambiguity, and disruption risks in supply chains, Covarrubias said.

"We will also obtain input in designing the two new core courses, additional core courses, and/or redesigning the original ones for the TIL certificate program from the Laredo Licensed U.S. Customs Brokers Association (LLUSCBA), Association of Logistics, and Forwarding Agents (ALFA), and the Laredo Motor Carriers Association (LMCA). All of them have endorsed the planning phase of this expanded certificate program," Covarrubias said.

Covarrubias said that the expanded TIL undergraduate certificate would offer businesses close to the U.S. – Mexican border industry-recognized trained professionals in digital logistics and supply chain resilience.

"The recipients of this certificate will be equipped as 21st-century managers, better preparing them to competitively embrace evolving technological and business innovation advancements," Covarrubias said.

For more information, please contact Covarrubias at 956.326.2520 or email dcova@tamiu.edu.

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