If anything, supply chain education is much too theoretical and often conducted by persons who have little real experience in the filed, according to a study by ChainLink Research.

So there is definitely room for improvement. In fact, comments received on the state of education tended to be quite negative. For example one person said, "Offered programs are parochial in nature, designed to drive sales of a vendor's tools or services, or are too generic to be of value. For example, [a major prestigious university] doesn't even understand its own legacy in systems thinking. Supply chains are complex and there are no easy fixes. Grossly simplified views perpetuate myths and drive the wrong solutions."

By far the most common comment on the state of supply chain education today was that it needs to be much less theoretical and more grounded in reality, taught by people with industry experience. There were many dozens of comments on this theme - here are a few cogent examples:

• "There is a significant lack of operating experience in the academic ranks. We need experienced executives teaching - real supply chain people from the industry as part of the program - rather than educated Ph.D.s who never worked in the business."

• "Most of the programs result mainly in just creating awareness. Rarely do participants get a solution for their real problems."

• "We need practical training that can be put into actual use, exercise-oriented and hands-on experience with the tools being used today. Taking it from the theoretical into the practical and addressing key topics from a business perspective including risk, sustainability, etc."

• "Focus on how to get the job done in daily work - how to convert the business decision into supply chain parameters to formulate a sustainable supply chain towards the customer."

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