Dear %%Voornaam%%,
With this newsletter we aim to briefly update you on the latest news within the SkillSea project. You are invited to share your updates and latest news so we can perhaps add it to the next edition.
This internal update is shared with all partners in the SkillSea consortium. |
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PROJECT UPDATE By Diedrick Jansen, project manager |
Dear partners, I hope that all of you have spend an agreeable summer period despite all turbulent developments in Europe and elsewhere around the world. In particular in comparison with the situation during the Covid pandemic, it sometimes seems strange to me that our SkillSea project continues as if there is no war in the Ukraine, no energy crisis and no rising inflation all over the world.
You all will have heard that EACEA has approved our demand for an extension of the project until June 3, 2023. We are very happy with this extension because it will enable us to further improve the quality of the project and the projects’ results and to intensify all our involvement in the project. I certainly hope that the extension will help many partners to overcome their (sometimes serious) under-spending of their budget.
Our next transnational partner meeting will take place on November 24 and 25 in Aalesund, Norway. NTNU will be our host. The most important item on the agenda will be the development of our SkillSea strategy for the maritime transport sector and the policy recommendations from the project. Other items on the agenda will be an update on the development of the educational packages. We will have plenary sessions and sessions in working groups. You will receive the agenda and possible preparatory work at the beginning of November.
I hope to see all of you in Norway. Diedrick Jansen, general project coordinator
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VIEWS ON OCCUPATIONAL PROFILES
By Alco Weeke / Technical Project Manager
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On the 14th of September, SkillSea's technical project manager Alco Weeke travelled to Brussels to present and discuss SkillSea's results with ECSA members and, later that day, with ETF members. The participants were partly on the premises of ECSA and ETF, respectively, and online.
The status of every work package has been discussed, and I took the liberty to ask some questions using Mentimeter. The combined results of both meetings are shown below. There have around 60 participants in total, half of ECSA and the other half of ETF.
On the first question: What do you expect SkillSea will deliver? |
As can be seen, some expectations align with ours, but some are currently not planned as an outcome. After showing some results on work package one, the question was asked: Which extra or new trends do you emphasize? |
This listing above shows some elements which may be worthwhile to research in Work Package 1 into the final deliverables. Or maybe items to discuss in the pilot of the Alliance. After explaining the status of work package two, the question was: Which new fuel should we develop for education in Maritime colleges? |
This outcome may also be used in the pilot of the Alliance to see what is needed for education at this moment, as there is still a lot unknown on this subject.
In an open discussion with the participants on the occupational profiles, it was interesting to hear the audience's opinion. The members of ECSA and ETF present in the meeting stated unanimously that they expect no new occupational profiles in the coming years. They all agree seafarers will need new (added) skills, but this will not yet lead to new occupations. For example, the persons needed in a shore control centre will probably be former or active captains and former or active (chief) engineers. This opinion aligns with the result of work package one.
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UPDATE ON RESEARCH IN WORK PACKAGE 1
By Arnfinn Oksavik, NTNU
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Work Package 1 has gained some momentum in improving the remaining deliverables following feedback from EACEA reviewer this autumn. The feedback is concrete and we are optimistic that we will have updated reports responding to comments by the next transnational meeting in Aalesund during 24th - 25th November. We have feedback that large industry associations ESA, BIMCO and ICS are seeing a higher standard of training as solution to the skills issue the shipping community is facing. We are positive that these signals are appearing in the industry but even better would be if we found some reports or statements that could confirm this.
One remaining issues that needs to be resolved within the project is how we are recommending a higher level of skills and how this should be suggested, as one, two or more units of competence. In our draft reports we are outlining several actions to close the skills gap. Here we should discuss whether to include a level that contain a portion of the IMO - STCW training programs that are not mandatory in addition to the levels that takes on the skills of the future (in the form of educational packages of WP2, digital, sustainable, leadership, etc.) and perhaps even more.
Since our Recommendations for Education and Training are coming at this stage in the project it should be better aligned with the strategy Work Package 3 than we originally intended. |
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EP INTRAPRENEURSHIP AND INNOVATION ALMOST FINISHED
By Gersende Le Dimna, ENSM |
The Educational Package (EP) on intrapreneurship and innovation is almost ready. In this newsletter we would like to explain the 'why' of this EP.
Why do we add this EP to the deliverables of project SkillSea? Intrapreneurship is a way to innovate within its own organisation. And we know that innovation can benefit both to the companies which can expect e.g. increased market share, revenue, and customer satisfaction and to its employees who can vary their activities and meet challenges that could offer them better positions, stimulations and team building.
In this way, the course then aims to introduce innovation and intrapreneurship to create opportunities to develop personal and corporate skills and competencies. Who is it for? Maritime professionals at managerial and intrapreneurial levels that wish to develop and implement knowledge of creative and innovative skills. EQF level 6 is a pre-requisite.
What is it about? After an introduction where key concepts for innovation and challenges and stakes of innovation are introduced, this EP is built on a case scenario that embrace all aspects of the topics: market analysis and risks assessments, project management, feasibility, legal issues, and business models. This EP is meant to grant 8 ECTS, and, once completed, be sure that trainees will get an intrapreneur mindset! The working group of this EP is made of French Maritime Academy (ENSM, initiator), Liverpool John Moores University, Svendbord Maritime Academy and Hamburg Business school as reviewer. |
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NAPLES SHIPPING WEEK 2022 By Lidia Rossi, Formare |
The conclusive day of the Naples Shipping Week saw the participation of Fabrizio Monticelli CEO of ForMare – National Shipping Hub in the panel “Human Factors Summit” during which he presented the European Project SkillSea – Future Proof Skills for the Maritime Sector. The participation to the Naples Shipping Week has represented a valuable opportunity for ForMare to present the project and its future steps.
In fact, during the Shipping Week, a set of conferences and meetings open to the entire international shipping community was hosted in Naples. Prestigious speakers and stakeholders from the industry, scientific and academic world intervened and/or participated to the panels. Furthermore, Kitack Lim, Secretary General of the IMO-International Maritime Organization took part as special guest during the NSW’s Opening Day. This has represented, indeed, a relevant opportunity for the stakeholder engagement activities and mostly to raise awareness on the relevance of the project.
In particular, the Panel “Human Factors Summit” was focused on the importance of Blue Economy’s skills for the competitiveness of the sector, and it was attended by several stakeholders, VET providers and experts of the maritime sector operating at the National, European and International Level. |
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INTERNATIONAL MARITIME CONFERENCE 2022
By Alco Weeke / Technical Project Manager
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On the 28th of September, SkillSea was presented at the XVIII International Maritime conference 2022 by Alco Weeke, technical project manager SkillSea. Alco gave insight into the aims and objectives of the project and shared the SkillSea results that are available so far. About 60 attendees with various backgrounds, ranging from the shipping industry to classification societies and education providers, attended the conference.
Annika Kroon of the EU has explained the FitFor 55 package. Isabel Cobos Delgado from the secretariat of the IMO talked about the human element: Outline of Present Challenges and Vision for the Future. Furthermore, there were presentations on Alternative fuels and the construction of offshore wind farms. The same two questions in the ECSA/ETF meeting have asked: What do you expect SkillSea to deliver, and Which extra or new trends do you emphasise? |
On the question 'Which new fuel should we develop for education in Maritime colleges?' the answer was almost the same as mentioned by ECSA and ETF members. |
The audience shared their thoughts on the development of occupational profiles. On the question, Shore control, employees are mainly? The audience expected (former) seafarers with additional skills. The audience did not foresee new occupational profiles in the discussion on occupational profiles but expected additional skills. There was only one exemption; some believe there will be a need for a digital officer, in line with the Electrical Technical Officer (ETO) but now for ICT skills, data analysis, and knowledge of electronics.
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The Estonian Shipowners' Association, TalTech Estonian Maritime Academy, Tallink Grupp and Corpore Conferences organised for the 17th consecutive year the oldest maritime conference in the Baltics, which aims to bring together maritime, transport, public and academic sectors and companies from Estonia and neighbouring countries. Download the SkillSea presentation (held in Tallinn) here. |
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KEEP TRACK OF YOUR DISSEMINATION ACTIVITIES By Esther Ouwens Nagell, STC Group |
We kindly ask all partners in the SkillSea project again to keep track of the dissemination activities. We have prepared a special Excel template we kindly ask you to use. You can find the file at MS Teams (Guideline and Templates). We would like you to fill in all activities (small and large) you undertook to inform stakeholders about our project. This can be (for example) a LinkedIn-update you shared, the web page you designed on your organisations' website about SkillSea or a presentation you gave. Could you please update the overview and save your document at MS Teams (in this file) ?
All SkillSea partners have an obligation to disseminate the results of the project. EACEA will hold us responsible for this and may cut funding if we do not deliver overviews. Thank you in advance for your input. Questions? Let us know via e-mail. |
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More information about SkillSea is available on the website: www.skillsea.eu. |
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