Skills
Foreign trade techniques and Incoterms
An Incoterm decides who pays for transport, who bears the risk and at what point ownership changes hands. Choosing it knowingly means securing a margin on every shipment and closing off the most frequent disputes in advance.
Three letters that decide a margin
Between two offers at the same headline price, the one carrying a different Incoterm can cost ten points of margin. The skill consists in reading that mechanism and negotiating it: point of risk transfer, who clears customs, insurance, documents the bank requires. It extends naturally into financing — documentary credit, guarantees — which secures payment at a distance. The programme teaches it on complete transactions, from quotation to delivery.
- Choose the Incoterm suited to a transaction and cost its consequences
- Draft a complete export quotation, transport and insurance included
- Assemble the document set the bank and customs expect
- Secure an international payment through documentary credit
The level you reach
You put together a complete import-export transaction on your own, from quotation to financial settlement. Level shows in volumes as much as in titles: here are both, side by side.
- teaching blocks
- 3
- of taught instruction
- 560 h
- credits in total
- 56
- professional qualifications concerned
- 3
Catalogue rule: one credit is twenty-five hours of work, ten of them taught.
The modules that carry it
A cross-curricular module spread over several years reads « Years 1 to 3 »: it runs alongside the whole programme rather than a single term.
| Teaching block | Programme | Taught hours | Year |
|---|---|---|---|
| Foreign trade techniques | International Trade | 240 h | Year 1 |
| The global trade environment | International Trade | 160 h | Year 1 |
| International financing | International Trade | 160 h | Year 2 |
The frameworks that carry it
The framework lists the blocks to be validated. This skill appears there as a professional requirement.
| Professional qualification | Target occupation | Level | Taught volume |
|---|---|---|---|
| Customs Declarant and Freight Forwarding Agent | declarant, forwarding agent | 5 · Senior technician and supervisor | 600 h |
| Logistics and Forwarding Manager | forwarding operations manager | 5 · Senior technician and supervisor | 700 h |
| Supply Chain Director | supply chain director, logistics director | 7 · Expert and executive | 700 h |
Choosing your programme
The right choice depends on the time you have as much as on the level you target. Both appear here.
| Programme | Level | Duration | Fees |
|---|---|---|---|
| International Trade | Bachelor's degree | 2 years | 5 000 000 GNF per year |
The questions we are asked
Is this skill useful to a small business?
It serves from the very first import: the Incoterm chosen and the document set determine the real cost and the time before the goods are available.
Is the port of Conakry used as a case study?
The transactions studied are built on the sub-region's real flows, with their constraints: port capacity, clearance times and land corridors.
Is English needed for export work?
International trade documents are mostly in English, and the programme's cross-curricular base devotes part of its 120 taught hours to it.
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