London Calling, chapter 89

On my way back to London for meetings with clients.

I am taking the Early Bird from Stockholm to London. A bit lonely in the plane this morning, it is normally full.

Today we have a very interesting meeting on how to build competence and capacity in the private sector trading community in the post-Brexit environment.

It will most certainly be needed. There is a huge gap identified in the Customs Service Provider sector for the end of the Brexit transition/implementation period dtarting on Saturday this week.

Some Government sources have stated that there will be only 25-30% capacity in the sector, so it will be a come-first/serve-first-race to get help with Brexit preparations, Customs changes, Customs declarations, other supporting documents, compliance support, consulting, training etc.

We need to find smart ways to help all of – or at leadt most of.. the hundreds of thousands companies that have never done import and export before. This is essbentisl snd Government knows it.

One way to copenfor companies is to use the UK Customs Academy where fully digital Customs triaking courses are offered for free through generous HMG grants. On UK Customs Academy people can take courses online from anywhere and on any digital equipment; computer, laptop, iPad or SmartPhone etc and do so whenever the timing is right. The can be the best cost free time investment ever for a company, making sure staff is not creating huge problems for the company in the post-Brexit environment.

On UK Customs Academy you can get a professional pathway from accredited Level 2 to Level 7 courses (Level 6 and Level gives academic diplomas and degrees).

But we need many more similar initiatives, as well as we need to maximizing the use of the facilities already available.