Awards and Scholarships

The George Kuhn Education Award is presented to the students who have achieved the highest marks in the FIATA Diploma Course – Advanced Freight Services (Formerly the Advanced Certificate Courses). The highest grade is based on the completion of the Advanced Freight Services course. Consideration for this award is given to each region in Canada.

Mr. Kuhn was CIFFA’s President from 1982 to 1983 and CIFFA’s Executive Director from 1999 to 2006 after an accomplished career in the international transportation industry in his native Switzerland, later in England, France, United States and Japan. He pioneered the creation of the CIFFA education programs in the early 1980s, complete with the Dangerous Goods courses and various workshops. Mr. Kuhn passed away November 11, 2019, leaving a vast legacy in our industry.

The Job Nicolai Award is presented to select students enrolled directly with CIFFA who have achieved the highest average grade in the CIFFA Certificate Courses. The average grade is based on the combination of the International Transportation and Trade, and Essentials of Freight Forwarding courses. Consideration for this award is given to each region in Canada.

Mr. Job Nicolai was a Central Region Lecturer in the early 1990s before CIFFA e-learning was developed. To be able to offer education through correspondence to students outside the main learning centres, Mr. Nicolai came up with the idea of developing exercises to go along with each chapter in the CIFFA International Freight Forwarding Courses. When Mr. Nicolai died, CIFFA introduced the Job Nicolai Award in his honour.

Every year, FIATA organized and the TT Club sponsored the Young Logistics Professional Award to encourage and nurture passion of the young talents representing all sectors of the industry, whatever their specialization. In line with FIATA’s guidelines, every year CIFFA puts forward the best Canadian candidate to compete for this award. The competition advances in three stages:

Stage 1: the Canadian round – interested applicants:

• Must be between 18 and 32 years of age.
• Must submit a completed application form, verification of date of birth, and a recommendation letter from a senior manager via e-mail to ciffa@ciffa.com, by the end of September each year.
• Must hold at least the CIFFA Certificate in International Freight Forwarding.
• Must have at least 2 years of freight forwarding experience. This is not mandatory but preferred due to the complexity of the task.

After meeting all the above requirements, the applicants will receive the topic for a dissertation and instructions for its completion. The deadline for submitting the completed dissertation is mid-January. CIFFA’s panel of subject-matter experts mark all submitted dissertations and select an overall winner. The winner receives a CA $1,500.00 cash prize and a digital award that can be shared on social media.

Stage 2: the Regional round (Americas, Africa, Europe and Asia):

• CIFFA submits the name of the Canadian winner to FIATA by mid-February.
• The winner must now complete another dissertation and submit both dissertations to FIATA by mid-May.
• The winner of the Regional round is announced by FIATA by early August.

Stage 3: the Global round – the four Regional winners:

• Are invited to the FIATA Congress in the fall. Their registration fees and accommodation costs are covered by FIATA, and they receive US $1,000.00 towards their return air ticket.
• Must prepare a 15-minute presentation on their dissertations and answer the judging panel’s questions.

The Global winner is announced after all four presentations are completed. The winner receives an international certificate, a trophy, one-week practical industry experience in Hong Kong, London or New Jersey, one-week academic training in the TT Club’s Head Office in London, and one-year free subscription to the International Transport Journal in English, French or German.