Maintaining skills is essential to every company in the port sector, particularly in the current environment where labour shortages are being felt across many industries.
The challenges of the pandemic have fuelled a problem that was already growing before 2020 and has since become even more acute with an acceleration in natural wastage.
Stevedoring, particularly the handling of large and bulky cargoes, is a specialist skill often developed over many years by personnel with a wealth of experience in driving a wide range of machinery and ensuring the safe transit of cargoes.
Unless we maintain continuity of those skills the port industry faces a critical shortage in the future, jeopardising the supply chain and risking the high standards of health and safety that have been painstakingly established.
Upskilling existing employees is one important part of investing for the future but, as workforces grow older, we must also focus on recruiting the port employees of tomorrow. At SCH, we are currently engaged in recruiting our annual intake of apprentices as part of our contribution to maintaining the pipeline of skills.
We are pleased to have the support of Boom Training in recruitment and learning management but getting the right people is a tough task. The image of the ports industry for many young people is one of unsocial hours carrying out physically demanding roles and working in all weathers. In contrast, sitting behind a desk working in a sector like IT has obvious attractions!
Despite that competitive environment, it is good to engage with youngsters keen to build a career in the port industry, while we also value older staff looking to enhance their skills.
They both recognise that the port industry, with its many varied avenues, offers a secure and promising future and their paths to becoming skilled port operatives will be important in keeping the wheels of trade moving.
They will join over 100,000 already employed in the sector and, although we are a modest part of that, we’re committed to playing our part in helping ports as enablers of regional economic growth and investment.
Maintaining skills is essential to every company in the port sector, particularly in the current environment where labour shortages are being felt across many industries.
The challenges of the pandemic have fuelled a problem that was already growing before 2020 and has since become even more acute with an acceleration in natural wastage.
Stevedoring, particularly the handling of large and bulky cargoes, is a specialist skill often developed over many years by personnel with a wealth of experience in driving a wide range of machinery and ensuring the safe transit of cargoes.
Unless we maintain continuity of those skills the port industry faces a critical shortage in the future, jeopardising the supply chain and risking the high standards of health and safety that have been painstakingly established.
Upskilling existing employees is one important part of investing for the future but, as workforces grow older, we must also focus on recruiting the port employees of tomorrow. At SCH, we are currently engaged in recruiting our annual intake of apprentices as part of our contribution to maintaining the pipeline of skills.
We are pleased to have the support of Boom Training in recruitment and learning management but getting the right people is a tough task. The image of the ports industry for many young people is one of unsocial hours carrying out physically demanding roles and working in all weathers. In contrast, sitting behind a desk working in a sector like IT has obvious attractions!
Despite that competitive environment, it is good to engage with youngsters keen to build a career in the port industry, while we also value older staff looking to enhance their skills.
They both recognise that the port industry, with its many varied avenues, offers a secure and promising future and their paths to becoming skilled port operatives will be important in keeping the wheels of trade moving.
They will join over 100,000 already employed in the sector and, although we are a modest part of that, we’re committed to playing our part in helping ports as enablers of regional economic growth and investment.
