Collaboration is key to develop maritime skills

Industry gathers to discuss maritime careers and trends

SOUTH AFRICA: A programme aimed to discuss the way forward to develop maritime careers and identify the training requirements to meet future trends drew a diverse audience in Cape Town yesterday where the Transport Education Training Authority (TETA) co-hosted an industry engagement with Fisheries & Aquaculture Development Institute (FADI).

Acknowledging that the training authority was working with a constrained budget, CEO Maphefo Anno-Frempong addressed this as well as other challenges in her keynote speech.

“Let’s forget about superficial divisions in the industry,” she told delegates, encouraging them to see the opportunities for seafarers across the various maritime sub-sectors. “Seafarers remain a key focus area for TETA within the maritime branch,” she confirmed.

Noting the high costs associated with seafarer training, she said that this did hamper the extent to which seafarer development could be supported from their budget.

Anno-Frempong, who was appointed to the Board of the World Maritime University (WMU) in February this year, also highlighted the success of the TETA Scholarship programme that sends candidates to study at the Swedish institute annually.

Incidentally, the latest call for applications is open and will close at the end of May. Interested maritime professionals must submit a motivational statement along with the necessary documentation in order to be considered for this opportunity.

Speaking to Anno-Frempong during the course of the day, she confirmed that she hoped to formalise the Alumni of students that had successfully completed their post graduate studies at WMU in an effort to foster further collaboration.

She believes that such an initiative would help maximise the benefits associated with sponsoring the annual cohorts.

“I want to see the country use the research that has been undertaken and so it is important to see how we can share these reports,” she said adding that her ambition was to create a harmonised network of students who could share knowledge and give back to the country.

Providing an overview of the work that TETA has accomplished within the maritime space, she noted the impact that grant funding has, but confirmed that their budget was nowhere near enough to facilitate the volume of applications received.

“Last year we received grant applications for more than R80 billion worth of projects, but we can only allocate half a billion rand,” she said, imploring the industry to become more collaborative in its efforts to support the training required for the development of skills within the sector.

“This is a call to action. We need to collaborate with us in an industry that is evolving. Let us engage and scrum together,” she said.   

Noting the changing landscape associated with fuels, Anno-Frempong, highlighted some of the work being undertaken within the green hydrogen space that includes the signing of an inter-SETA collaboration to work on tapping into hydrogen as an alternative fuel.

The call to collaborate was echoed by Nceba Mfini, HR Executive AMSOL and chair of the HR Maritime Task Force Network that was established in 2021.

“The industry is not united. We compete where we need to collaborate,” he told the audience in his presentation aimed at identifying future skills for maritime professionals.

“There are places where we need to work together and there remain areas where the industry is not aligned,” he continued as he highlighted several areas and challenges that need to be solved collectively.

Many of these challenges are not new and have been highlighted over the last decade as crucial areas for advancing the industry. With a future that is demanding green energy and a cleaner footprint, the South African maritime workforce is, however, still battling a shortage in skills associated with welding as well as other trades associated with the marine engineering sector that has the potential to create significant employment.

“South African companies need to work together on training. If we don’t, we will fail,” Mfini bluntly told the audience. “There is a drive for innovation, but we need to work together to achieve it or we will be left behind.”

Panel input on opportunities and challenges

In a panel that included a diverse cross section of the industry including fishing, ship building, boat building as well as oil and gas, panellists delved into how they were addressing challenges within their organisations.

Captain Vernon Keller of the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) was frank in unpacking the current shortage of surveyors faced by the authority. It’s an issue that has direct impact on the functioning of the sector and Keller admitted that they were at least 14 surveyors short.

Explaining the level of expertise required to become a surveyor as well as the additional training required to comply with the international requirements to conduct inspections on different types of vessels, Keller highlighted that the industry could not expect a quick fix.

Emphasising the need to establish a talent pipeline, he urged the industry to work towards developing an interest in the maritime environment at school level.

Industry panellists from Oceana, Damen Shipyards Cape Town and Robertson and Caine shared their strategies for skills development. Both Oceana and Damen have established training schools that focus on the skills required in their organisations, while Robertson and Caine has dedicated internships, learnerships and development programmes in place.

Panellists identified the critical need for planned succession within an industry that is experiencing skills depletion as staff reach retirement age.

Oceana Maritime Academy Manager, Alice Herselman, who outlined the impact of their academy in Hout Bay, said that the company was looking at prioritising existing employee training for succession planning. “We need to make sure that the incoming staff understand the fishing industry and that skills are shared,” she said.

Like many of the panellists, she noted the need to attract a new generation into the industry. “We have to sell the industry,” she said.

HR Director for Robertson and Caine, Annemarie Cloete-Marais confirmed that the company was also battling a limited talent pool that would need to be replenished to ensure that the legacy created by the boatbuilding company could continue.

“We need to enhance the pipeline,” she said, describing in-house initiatives to partner with academic institutions to provide learnerships and internships.

Agreeing with his colleague, Kevin Wustefeld Janssens, emphasised the need for strong leadership to develop internal programmes aimed at increasing technical skills.

According to Eva Moloi of Damen, the ship builder is also actively involved in apprenticeship training through partnerships with TVET colleges and offers a three-year programme for candidates to qualify as artisans.

Admitting that the cyclical nature of the ship building industry constrains their ability to employ a large permanent workforce, she noted that many local artisans have found opportunities in other countries, but that the cost of South African labour was significantly higher than some regions.

Weighing in on the situation in the oil and gas sector, CEO of the South African Oil and Gas Alliance, Adrian Strydom outlined some of the partnerships that the body has entered into to promote training and skills development in the sector.

He also addressed the need to acknowledge future trends towards using Artificial Intelligence (AI). “AI is here and we need to learn to use it to create more job opportunities,” he said while also acknowledging the concerns around AI within the marketplace.

Wrapping up the session, Malcolm Alexander from TETA reiterated the need to reverse the trend towards job losses. “Our youth are unemployed and are becoming bitter. This is a major problem that needs to be addressed,” he said, while inviting discussion around the opportunities that could be harnessed within the cruise line industry.

“At TETA we only have the funding to train 500 youngsters for placement in the cruise sector, but there is an opportunity to place far greater numbers with the right partnerships,” he said. “We are losing jobs in the sector, and we need to look globaly to start placing South Africans,” he added.

“It is worth doing. We have unqualified youth who do not have access to bursaries and without many opportunities. We need to get the economy on a positive trajectory,” he told the audience.

Ending with a call to action, Alexander called on the South African “fighting spirit” and urged companies to collaborate to address the challenges facing the youth.

PHOTO: Malcom Alexander of the Transport Education Training Authority (TETA) joins panellists to discuss the challenges related to talent development in the maritime sub-sectors. (© Maritime Review Africa)

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