Valencia – 24.09.19. Today in Brussels, at the headquarters of the VIAS Institute, an event is being held to disseminate the results and recommendations for action of the European project SKILLFUL (Skills and competences development of future transportation professionals at all levels), an initiative in which Fundación Valenciaport has actively participated and which is scheduled to end on 30 September.

Thanks to this project, developed over the last three years, the challenges facing the European transport sector as a result of technological and digital transformation, automation and the pressing need to offer more sustainable mobility options and transport alternatives with a lower environmental impact have been analysed. These challenges could seriously jeopardise the employability of some of its current professionals and make it difficult to find workers with the right skills in the coming years.

In the case of the maritime-port sector, a considerable number of professionals will also have to face this challenge. Several entities have been studying the issues related to unmanned ships and crew reduction for several years through R&D&I projects and some prototypes of autonomous ships have already been tested, such as the one developed by Rolls-Royce. In ports, professions with a higher risk of occupational accidents, such as stevedores and mooring workers, will benefit from occupational safety measures with the automation of processes that would improve their working conditions and could in turn improve their productivity and efficiency in service delivery. In the port terminals themselves, positions such as cargo planners and maintenance managers will have to deal with the day-to-day effects of increased ship capacity and the progressive automation and electrification of these facilities.

Against this backdrop, training appears to be the key element in facilitating a smooth transition to the new scenarios by enabling the appropriate training of these professionals, equipping them with the skills that will be required in the future. In addition, it will enable new profiles to enter the sector as knowledge in areas such as cybersecurity, the internet of things (IoT), 5G, artificial intelligence and 3D printing, among others, will be in demand.

*In order to publicise the work carried out in the project, the Valenciaport Foundation has produced two videos explaining the project and available on its Youtube channel:

General short version for all modes of transport
Long version focusing on the impact on professionals in the maritime-port sector.