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Maritime education in the Rotterdam region is prepared for the future
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Simonette Kraaij, director of STC Training & Consultancy, focuses on training professionals in and around the port; for example, people who are looking for a career change, or professionals that need further training or require certificates. ‘Training and development is a real hygiene factor. If, as a company, you don't ensure that your employees are properly trained, things can quickly grind to a halt.’
There are countless maritime educational opportunities in the Rotterdam region, says Kraaij. Maritime education is provided at every level by all kinds of educational institutions within the Rotterdam region, including the Drecht cities. For example, preparatory vocational education (vmbo) can be found in Gorinchem and Rotterdam. Schools that offer courses that include maritime knowledge. On senior secondary vocational level (mbo) and higher professional education (hbo) courses that are related to manufacturing industry can be found in Dordrecht and Rotterdam. You can, for example, take a master's degree in Shipping and Transport at STC Group, an educational and research institution for shipping, logistics, transport and process industries. But in addition to these courses, which are aimed more at young people, Rotterdam also has a wide range of retraining and refresher courses on offer. People who work in the shipping industry have to undergo a very extensive procedure every five years to make sure their papers are all in order. This is done at STC-KNRM in Heijplaat in Rotterdam. All educational institutes work closely together to prevent the same provision from being offered in different places and classes from becoming smaller.’
The inhabitants of Rotterdam are proud of their port, says Kraaij. Many generations have worked in this port. Rotterdam distinguishes itself from other ports through its green and innovative credentials. The Port of Rotterdam Authority is working hard on greening and sustainability. They have already gone a long way in making ships' fuels more sustainable, such as LNG. They are also already working on the next step: hydrogen. Excellent developments are under way to make it possible for large ships to be entirely electrically powered. Tests are currently being carried out on this. Greening by means of supplying shore power, when a ship makes use of a connection to the shore-side electricity grid, and the use of residual heat from industry in main ports for companies are also developments that are at play. Smart students are responding to these developments and spend the whole day thinking up innovations that will soon make the port even greener.’
Developments such as digitisation and sustainability have led to the emergence of new professions and, as a result, new training courses. Kraaij: At STC Training & Consultancy, we are constantly evolving. We are now, for example, developing modules to train offshore wind personnel. We are also being asked by shipping companies and shipbuilders from a variety of countries to share our information and knowledge about LNG. We train the people who will ultimately work on these LNG ships. These are short-term courses, which consist partly of theory and partly of practical experience. For the practical part, we use an LNG simulator, because you can't just go into the engine room of an LNG ship. We also simulate this using virtual reality. Discussions are now under way with parties in the Middle East as to how we can speed up our LNG courses, because they are already building LNG ships. In addition, we are investing heavily in the development of a middle management programme specifically for port-related companies. A unique feature of this programme is that the middle manager is trained to stimulate and realise innovation within more traditional sectors. How do you get people on board to work on developments such as digitisation and sustainability? It’s a kind of change management. We also offer many bespoke training courses. We ask companies what they need, then we respond to the demand and get to work on it.’
The world is changing and so is the educational landscape, according to Kraaij. Nowadays, schools and educational institutions are still very often teaching in classroom environments. But if you look at how young people learn, classroom lessons can seem a little antiquated to them. More and more people are looking at online offerings; part theory with videos and assignments that you can do at home and when you meet with a group, the discussions can begin and the learning deepened. I think that in the future school buildings and training locations will still be there, but on a much smaller scale. These will be the places where people will meet each other for interaction and networking. People remain social animals, so that need will always remain. The training institute will continue to exist, but its function will change. I think there's going to be a rapid shift.’
STC Group has formed industry committees which include representatives of leading companies from the sectors focused on the port: shipbuilding, shipping, inland shipping, transport and logistics. These committees feed the educational system with their needs and wishes. They tell us what is happening in their sector in terms of developments and what role education could play in this. STC Group offers a total of up to fifty courses, at all levels, aimed at industries in the logistics and maritime sectors. The collaboration between the business community and the educational institutions is very important for both parties.’
The best practical example of this collaboration is the hybrid subject teacher. Kraaij: A hybrid subject teacher is a teacher who, for example, works for a shipbuilder two days a week, teaches our shipbuilding subjects two days a week and goes to school one day to get accredited as a teacher. The main advantage of this is that this teacher has one leg in industry and the other leg in education while teaching young people who will soon be working in shipbuilding. It is far more interesting for students when someone is talking from practical experience rather than from a book. But it is also important for the industry, because their hybrid subject teacher ensures that up-to-date knowledge from the industry reaches the students directly. In this case, the bond with students is built up at an early stage.’
Kraaij sees that developments are happening at an unbelievably fast pace. Lifelong learning is necessary in order to be able to continue working. We have to deal with an ageing population, so people have to keep working longer. The companies want to retrain their people to ensure that they can work for as long as possible and remain satisfied with their roles. In addition, there is upward pressure on the level of education. In job vacancies, for example, you often see that a minimum MBO-4 level is being requested, so continuing to develop is also very important for younger employees. Unskilled work in the office doesn’t actually exists anymore. All the workers in the port warehouses have also been educated, which also makes sense. Well-trained personnel are often more alert to customer-friendliness and more attentive to safety. We also see that offering training and education is a way for companies to distinguish themselves from their competitors. A good culture in which you, as an employer, give employees the opportunity to develop is an added value for a potential employee.’
Kraaij: I am chairwoman of the PR Council of Nederland Maritiem Land (Martitime by Holland), the umbrella organisation of the Dutch maritime cluster. And at the marketing committee of Netherlands Maritime Technology. Over the past year, we have been discussing employer branding with all kinds of maritime companies and suppliers. Employer branding ensures that a company has a good employer brand and that people would like to work for a certain company. How can we position the maritime sector in relation to other sectors? Not shipbuilders or shipowners competing against each other, but the entire maritime sector against the other sectors that also require technicians. As a educational institute, we align ourselves, as much as possible, with the initiatives of the business community where we can provide support when it comes to creating good training plans or establishing training departments. In a number of cases, we can also assist in applying for subsidies for training courses. So much happens every day in the maritime sector, things which have global reach, and that's what always makes it so fascinating. We can be proud of ourselves and what we achieve together, something we should tell each more often.
Learn more about Human Capital in the Rotterdam region.
