Tuesday 4th of March and Wednesday, the 5th of March, around 35 SkillSea partners met in Brussels (Belgium) to be informed about the results of the work executed in the different work packages and to discuss the future developments and activities in the project. Because the partners had only seen each other during the past two years on screen, a meet-and-greet was added to the programme in order to stimulate the exchange and to facilitate the mutual contact.
Hans-Peter Hildre from NTNU presented very interesting results of the work package 1 research concerning current and future skills needs. The participants supported the conclusions of his presentation regarding green shipping and digital technologies, and the need for adapting current and future educational programmes.
Susie Bogojevic from SIMAC presented the work package 2 results regarding the toolbox and the Educational packages. She explained the function and importance of the toolbox. The toolbox is a flexible design covering how you decide upon and create a course, a curriculum, a study programme. The toolbox proposes a step by step approach, which starts with the learning objectives and the learning outcomes, focusing on specific target groups. This input leads to the development of delivery methods, educational content and assessment form. The toolbox is supported by short videos, interactive tools and a guide with reflections on lessons learned, benefits, pitfalls, and examples on scalability and transfer between levels of education and upskilling. The Educational Packages are toolboxes dedicated to a specific course. Examples of the courses are Digital Skills 1 and 2, Green Skills 1 and 2, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) and Leadership. All partners agreed that the development of the toolbox provided them with an important instrument that will facilitate current and future course development for a large number of target groups in maritime transport. The educational packages that are developed until now, were considered being very relevant for the sector and good examples of the working of the toolbox.
Vangelis Tsioumas from Eugenides Foundation systematically explained the work that was executed in work package 3. Currently, much work is dedicated in collecting strategic recommendations from work packages and highlighting areas of agreement to formulate a final set of recommendations on Skills’ strategy resulting potential policy directions.
Esther Ouwens from STC, who is responsible for all the activities regarding the dissemination of SkillSea emphasized the need for an intensified effort by all partners to further spread the information about SkillSea and its concrete results.
The afternoon session was dedicated to the discussion about the SkillSea Knowledge Hub. The SkillSea Knowledge Hub is expected to become the structure of the stakeholders (research institutions, education institutes, enterprises, government bodies) in maritime transport. In the SkillSea Knowledge Hub, the different stakeholders will discuss developments in the sector and their consequences for job profiles and curricula. Establishing a structural cooperation is expected to be highly relevant for the sector and to be beneficial for its economic development. The discussion demonstrated a highly level of commitment of all partners. At the same time, it became obvious that not all partners share similar opinions regarding the role of the hub, its ambitions and the planning of the realization. These elements will be discussed further between partners in the coming months and certainly will be scheduled for the next meeting of the partners.