Freight Forwarder / Shipping Agent careers guide

Useful Skills To Put On Your CV:

• Good basic digital skills and a willingness to learn new software as needed
• Great problem solving skills and the ability to work under pressure and think on your feet
• Organisational and planning skills – if you are planning routes across all kinds of different transport types, you’ll have lots of routes/projects happening at the same time. You’ll need to stay on top of it.
• Good resilience – when things don’t go according to your amazing plans, you’ll be able to adapt and make new decisions on what’s best to complete the mission!
• Great communication skills – keeping open communication with customers is very important;

• Ace teamwork skills – it takes a team to get that freight where it needs to be.
• Having some grounding in geography – your freight could be moving across the UK, Europe and the world. You’ll learn your freight routes in time but it always helps to know Brighton isn’t in Scotland and Peru is not in Africa
• Understanding different cultures and religions – this is so important, especially when working internationally.

How Do You Get These Skills?

Vocational qualifications and work experience will help you build these skills over time.

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School, College And Training

If you want to begin your freight forwarding training straight after school, you’ll find that many employers would love to see at least four GCSEs or the equivalent – including English and maths – on your CV (grades 9-4 / A* – C).

Some companies may also want you to have A-levels or H grades, too – but often won’t require you to have a degree.

DID YOU KNOW? In some parts of the UK you can also do a BTEC National Awards in Logistics, so GCSEs and A-levels are not your only way in!

Taking a Higher National Diploma (HND) in any of the above subjects could also be a very sensible option. As well as the specialised HNDs in the transport and logistics sector on offer, you can just as easily explore broader subjects like business studies if they include relevant modules.

When you’ve decided that being a freight forwarder is the path for you, you might find that not all companies and employers need you to have a degree. They might find it even more appealing if you have practical experience within a similar industry. However, getting a degree might help you enter at a higher level or join one of the graduate training schemes offered by some of the larger employers.

Degrees And University

This is a great role for an IT-literate graduate in business, geography or languages! If you decide to go to university to pursue your freight forwarding career, this may allow you to enter at a more senior level. Relevant degree subjects include:

• accounting/finance
• business/management
• economics
• geography
• modern foreign languages
• supply chain management
• transport/distribution/logistics

If you’d like to enter freight forwarding at a more senior level, or progress more quickly, you could do a relevant degree and then looking at postgraduate options. Masters in logistics and supply chain management are available in universities across the UK. Why not check out CILT UK? They can keep you up to date with the industry and offer student memberships for cash-strapped students too!

Some larger organisations will offer graduate training schemes, where you’ll spend up to two years exploring the company and working in different areas.

You might also be able do additional qualifications like the CILT ones listed below:

• Level 3 Certificate in Logistics and Transport – for a career within transport and supply chain management.
• Level 5 Professional Diploma in Logistics and Transport – to develop core management skills.

You can be given more responsibilities over time, as you get to know the ins and outs of international shipping and moving goods by rail and air.

You could become an import-export manager, a specialist in international trade law, or an overseas account manager.

Work Experience Tips

Like most professions, work experience is always a big plus and it doesn’t have to be in the freight forwarding sector.

Ideally, you’ll have done some work experience which includes broadening your IT skills and day to day office work such as admin and answering phone calls. You’ll also know how to treat customers in a professional and polite way. This is important, because a lot of your work could involve speaking with people to make sure freight has been forwarded just the way you planned it.

Types Of Work Experience:

• Work shadowing (even if it’s just for a day)
• Work placements in a company
• Work placements on a degree course

If you’d like to do more specific work experience, why not get in contact with a relevant company and ask to do some shadowing work? This is a great way to learn the desired trade skills first hand.

• Freight forwarding trainee
• Trainee import/export clerk
• Trainee shipping agent
• Shipping trainee
• Freight forwarding apprenticeship
• Graduate freight forwarder
• Graduate shipping agent jobs

When building up your qualifications and work experience you can also look into developing skills in the following areas. They will help you understand transport and logistics from all kinds of viewpoints:

• packaging and goods
• order picking
• sorting
• warehousing

These employers all carry our Youth Friendly Employer Mark. We work with them to make sure that they are providing great support and opportunities to young people.

Click on an employer to find out more about them and the youth-friendly opportunities they offer, from work experience and apprenticeships through to graduate schemes.