How to meet future demands in Maritime Industry. Interview with Tine Westerberg.

Written by Gesine Stück  |  Thursday, 05 May 2011  | 

The Norwegian Shipowners’ Association (NSA) has about 160 members from the tank and bulk transport sector, the short sea sector and offshore activities. The goal of NSA is to be a driving force for debate on corporate social responsibility in the shipping industry business and to offer solutions for sustainable development. One of its main objectives is to ensure that members have access to sufficient numbers of highly qualified employees at sea and ashore. That perfectly matches the aim of NMU: providing a rounded education for future maritime professionals.

NMU project member Harald Martin Hjelle spoke with Tine Viveka Westerberg, project manager at the Norwegian Shipowners’ Association (NSA), a NMU stakeholder, about hot to meet the future needs of the maritime industry.

Harald Hjelle (HH): The Norwegian fleet is one of the largest in the world. Is there a strong focus on human resource development among Norwegian shipowners?
Tine Viveka Westerberg (TVW): Human resource development has been a focus among Norwegian ship owners for a long time. The increased complexity in both maritime operations, logistics, contracting, engineering and other areas have made the focus necessary. The focus is both on board and on shore. On board the Norwegian ships the focus on competence has always been at the forefront of the development in international regulations. On shore human resource development has been increasing over time.

HH: What are the main challenges for the maritime industry with respect to human resources in the years to come?
TVW: The environmental challenges, the demands for more efficient shipping and the advanced maritime operations the industry is facing will increase the demand for specialised human resources, both on shore and on board the ships.
To meet the demands from a more specialised fleet, especially in the offshore industry, maritime education needs to be coordinated and educational institutions must build expertise within chosen fields to be able to educate future seafarers best. The complexity of our industry’s operation also leads to a great demand for engineers.

HH: What kind of initiatives and actions related to higher maritime education does the NSA engage in?
TVW: The NSA supports several initiatives related to higher maritime education. We have a close relationship with several Norwegian universities and colleges to create activity with a focus on the maritime industry. We organise introductory lectures on the maritime industry, invite guest lecturers in specialised topics, and arrange seminars and conferences for students. In addition we offer students possibilities to write papers in cooperation with the industry. We also arrange visits to companies and ships. All this is organised within the framework of our project called “Maritime Career” for more information about this see www.maritimkarriere.no. We also have a close relationship with several institutions on projects, both within research and education.
We have a research initiative called the Global Maritime Knowledge Hub (GMKH). Its main aim is to finance chairs at leading Norwegian academic environments, and through that contribute to research, development and education that will ensure Norway’s position as a knowledge hub in the global maritime industry. Through this the Norwegian maritime industry will become more attractive as a host country. So far we have financed 21 professors at six Norwegian institutions, sponsored by 21 different companies in the maritime industry. The chairs are mainly technological, with green technology as a main focus, but other research areas are also included. We are now looking into several new areas of research, namely LNG, sustainability, law, insurance and business development. You can find more information about this at www.knowledgehub.no.
What makes the Norwegian maritime industry special is the close cooperation within the country’s maritime cluster. To make sure that the newly educated professionals have a thorough understanding of the whole value chain we offer a trainee program called “Maritime Trainee”. This is a program that combines work and an academic program over the first two years of a career. For more information about this please visit: www.maritimtrainee.no.

HH: Thank you very much!