Emerging skills, roles boost diversity for new generation
Industry leaders hope to engage a greater cross-section of jobseekers into the maritime industry workforce.
Automation and increasing technology across the maritime industry are boosting workplace diversity, as the industry seeks to highlight its diverse offerings to a new generation.
Industry leaders hope rising innovation and new training opportunities will engage a greater cross-section of jobseekers into the ageing, male-dominated workforce.
NSW Ports Authority CEO Marika Calfas says the roles and skills needed to succeed in the maritime industry are evolving.
“Where you have a terminal that has moved from fully manual to a material level of automation, then obviously you see a change in the workforce that is required to support that,” she says.
“It means a workforce with a different skillset. You remove out of the operations some of the more manual activities that have higher safety risks with them.
“Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are core to many of the new and emerging roles in ports and logistics.”
Ports workers are in demand. The Maritime Industry Reference Committee’s 2019 Skills Forecast found almost four out of five employers in the sector reported experiencing a skills shortage in the previous year.
Priority areas were navigation and vessel handling, as well as health and safety, operations, digital skills and risk management.
The Queensland Transport and Logistics Workforce, Current and Future Trends says one in four of the current maritime and ports workers are aged over 55 years old. A separate report cited found half the industry employees were over 45.
Calfas says companies are changing their recruitment processes to highlight the skills required, and not just the job technicalities involved, in a bid to widen the recruitment.
“You start to broaden the candidate pool because you get beyond people’s misconceptions about what a role might be,” she says.
Women made up just 13 per cent of the maritime workforce in 2016. Just 6 per cent of the marine transport professions were women, and 1.5 per cent of the 473 freight handlers, and zero crane, hoist and lift operators.
“The female population remains a significantly untapped source of labour to fill the skills shortages being faced in key occupations across the industry,” the report says.
Logistics company Qube Holdings is attempting to grow and diversify its skills base. It has a proposed 15 per cent target for female employees by 2025, with the target of 40 per cent female board members.
It’s working with Deakin University’s Centre for Supply Chain and Logistics, to undertake research with the goal of increasing female participation.
Patrick Stevedores also operates the Women in Logistics two-year cadetship to accelerate high-potential women for leadership and operational roles, providing workplace training and qualifications.
Qube’s general manager, health, safety and sustainability Belinda Flynn says their initiatives have seen year-on-year increases in females within the business, and Patrick Stevedores has seen a significant change in the proportion of women who are managers. It is now 40 per cent.
“The change will take time — it is about building the pipeline of female talent,” Flynn says. “Importantly, organisations that are shown to successfully leverage diversity often find their growth, productivity and profitability have increased too.”
One of the most in-demand roles is that of a marine pilot, a critical role in the supply chain to engage with overseas vessels as they enter Australian waters and steer them into port.
‘Science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) are core to many of the new and emerging roles in ports and logistics’
Traditionally their training and ongoing reskilling requires months at sea at a time, learning how to navigate channels and through ports safely. But hi-tech simulated scenarios are allowing similar training without having to be at sea for extended periods.
North Queensland Bulk Ports chief executive officer Nicolas Fertin says the organisation established a remote shipping simulator in Mackay, in collaboration with Maritime Safety Queensland and Smartships Australia.
“With a direct feed into the Smartship simulator 1000km away in Brisbane, several pilot licence assessments were conducted without the need for pilots to travel to Brisbane,” he says.
On the west coast, the Mid West Ports Authority has created a new training pathway for Master Ones to become pilots through “very significant training regimen and simulations”.
“They still have to do the training but they don’t have to spend six months at sea at a time,” chief executive Rochelle Macdonald says.
Dr Macdonald says the organisation also does significant outreach to highlight the range of opportunities at the ports — the skilled and varied professions from human resources and marketing professionals to operations leaders and engineers — to local high school students in Geraldton.
This includes a partnership with the Australasian Corrosion Association where students took their classroom education about corrosion out to the port for in-person learning.
“They see the impact of what they’re learning,” Macdonald says. “It’s about giving back to the local community so young people can decide what they want to do.”
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Women on the water
CASE STUDY #1
JEANINE DRUMMOND
Harbour master (Newcastle & Yamba)
When leaving school, I was looking for travel and adventure and something near the sea. A family friend, a marine engineer at sea, introduced me to the merchant navy, and I couldn’t sign up quick enough. I was 18 when I started at sea as a deck and navigating officer. This cadetship laid the foundations of a career path that has spanned two decades, taken me around the world, working on different ships, and from cadet to captain, and then ashore from tug master to harbour master.
The maritime industry gets in your blood; every day there is something different and new. Being introduced to the industry as a seafarer provided opportunities at a young age for me to develop a wide skill set, from navigating ships to repairing large centrifugal cargo pumps.
When it was time to leave the sea, the perfect transition role was as a master on harbour tugs. I have stayed in the industry as it is never dull, I get to work with great people every day, I am always challenged by the variety of complex problems, and the continual improvement required to deliver operational excellence.
I enjoy working closely with our teams, port and industry stakeholders, and drawing on the expertise in my wider professional network. This ensures shipping activities in our ports are operated safely, protecting our ports people, community, environment and infrastructure.
CASE STUDY #2
MEGAN ABBOTT
Marine pilot (Sydney)
I went to sea as a deck cadet straight out of high school. I grew up sailing and loving the ocean and knew that was where
I would like to be.
The only industry that was visible to me at the time was the cruise industry and the only position I knew at the time was captain. So at a university open day that was the question I asked, “How do I become a captain on a cruise ship?” I completed my
first course at the Australian Maritime College (in Launceston, Tasmania) and
from there the maritime world has opened up.
I have worked on a number of types of vessels and in all deck officer positions right up to captain. It has proven itself to be a very rewarding industry, a job where you can see the outcomes of all your hard work. It is challenging, no two days are the same, you are working in such a dynamic environment.
There is also the chance for professional development within the chain of command onboard or within the many facets of the industry ashore and in ports.
Now, as a marine pilot in Sydney, I feel extremely lucky to have been given such an exciting opportunity to do what I love.
In my view the pilotage part of any voyage was the most exciting and now I get to do it every day. And every day there is a new challenge.
The views of Sydney Harbour passing by the “office” windows — that is just the icing on top of the cake.
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Hiring ‘right person for the job’ is key
CASE STUDY #3
ROCHELLE MACDONALD
Chief executive Mid West Ports Authority (Geraldton)
Rochelle Macdonald picks the best people for her executive-level jobs at Geraldton’s Mid West Ports Authority, and it just so happens that many of them happen to be women.
The chief executive, who has worked in ports and port development across the country and internationally for more than two decades, says recruitment isn’t about
meeting a diversity target
or ticking a box.
“It is about being open to have people working for you who are different,” she says.
“That’s the real difference.
I don’t want to be employed because I’m female.
“I want to be employed because I’m the right person for the job.”
Dr Macdonald’s philosophy has resulted in four of the seven C-suite level executives being women. The six-person board also has an even split of men and women.
Her role at Mid West Ports oversees the management and operations of the critical infrastructure for trade of grains, minerals and livestock, fertiliser, mineral sands,
general cargo and fuel, as well
as cruise ships, oil rig tenders and fishing.
It enables the region’s supply chain, including for mining, agricultural products and fishing sector.
A masterplan launched last month has mapped out a future path to increased efficiency and future development.
Dr Macdonald says her career in ports grew from an early interest in geology.
To the chagrin of her very traditional mining engineer grandfather, she followed in his footsteps and was propelled by her strong drive and excellent mentors. She worked on major projects such as Woodside’s Pluto LNG, Chevron’s Gorgon LNG and Wheatstone projects, and transitioned into executive roles at the Port of Dampier.
Staking her claim in the male-dominated industry was about doing the work and doing it well.
“Twenty years ago when I started, it was pretty tough back then,” she says.
“I do have a lot of respect from a technical point of view. I bring quite a different approach to the way we operate as an organisation.
“It’s very much about focusing on the future and doing what we need to do now to achieve long-term sustainability, to make sure we’re ready for what our future customers will need.”
On the other side of the country, the chief executive officer of NSW Ports Marika Calfas has a similar experience of learning, doing the work and reaching the executive level.
She says there has been change in the diversity of the ports workforce, as the industry itself changes to more contemporary operation.
“The nature of the industry is evolving in the type of skill sets you need, but also the recognition that diversity brings value,” she says.
“I can only speak very highly of the industry, of the scale and what it offers you.”