Start of 50 topstudents in @PressureCooker4 for new portsolutions

A special welcome to the 50 topstudents of Hogeschool Rotterdam, STC and InHolland that will work together with professionals of leading portrelated companies during this holidayweek to find new solutions for the future challenges of the port of Rotterdam. Welcome in the maritime museum, a historical place where the importance and richness of the port of Rotterdam is very visible. Until today it is Europe’s biggest port but the Port activities have long since moved outside the city proper. The Port of Rotterdam is now based on areas around the Maas and off course at ‘new land’ Maasvlakte I and II. We are very proud of our harbour and we work hard to contain this leading position in Europe. We need your talent today and in the future to retain this.

Our ambitions for the port are high. We have two main goals. To be the hub for goods within Europe and between Europe and other continents in 2030. And to be Europe's Industrial Cluster: the largest, most modern and most sustainable petrochemical and energy cluster in 2030, together with Antwerp. We can only realise these ambitions if we have enough workers. At the moment, it is already difficult to fill the 2,200 vacancies that become available in the port each year. This task will be even more difficult in the future, given the ageing population. Having regard to the Port Vision 2030, we established a team of experts which has been given the goal to improve the functioning of the port labour market. Employer demand leads their work.

The team of experts is currently working hard on creating a cooperative venture between employers, educational establishments and the government (the GOAL Port). The most important spearheads for this venture are: 1) Making sure pupils and students are educated for professions that are in great demand. For instance engineering, ICT and other technicsbased professions, 2) Acting as an intermediary for job seekers (those from within the port industry sector itself, those from outside the sector and those who are currently on benefits) in order to find them a new job at the port.

It is good to see that businesses take their responsibility. For example in the Process Industry Sector, employers within which have committed themselves to the agreement to give pupils a career-start guarantee when beginning their education. The three vocation educational schools in the greater Rotterdam region – the Albeda College, ROC Zadkine and the STC Group – all have entered into an agreement with Deltalinqs on 28 September 2012, to fill 500 places this way in the years to come.

But we need more. We need tot hink how to deal with new challenges at the labour market, challenges like more and more flexible workers and fast moving activities around the world. And the “war” on talent that has already started worldwide. At the same time, we have too many people unemployed and are facing the rise of youth unemployment.

And that’s where you come in, we need social innovations for new labour arrangements. Some of you will work specifically with this theme. But we also need to apply technological innovations to support sustainable economic growth. We see a lot of innovative power in the port. First things that come up in mind when you think about port innovations are the big ships and container cranes. But there is a whole lot more! For example: Nanotech, 3D printing, mobile, new energy sources, sustainability, robots for Port of Rotterdam (logistics) and biotech. We need you to think ahead. Take the 3D-printer, not only an opportunity but also a threat. When everybody can print anything at low cost themselves, then we don’t need to move goods.

The challenges are there and we have the luxury of 50 students with professionals of leading portrelated companies in this pressure cooker. Dear students, I wish you all the best during these pressure cooking days. I wish you a lot of inspiration and innovation to find solutions for the future of our world port!

 

Dit bericht is geplaatst in Arbeidsmarkt, Hoger Onderwijs. Bookmark de permalink.

Geef een reactie

Je e-mailadres wordt niet gepubliceerd. Verplichte velden zijn gemarkeerd met *

*

De volgende HTML tags en attributen zijn toegestaan: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>