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SHIPPING must look beyond traditional approaches to attract talent as digitisation accelerates, says global ship management group Wallem, reports the Manila Times.
Shipping’s shift into digitisation concerns more than simply implementing newer and fancier technologies: it is also about reskilling the workforce and attracting new talent, Wallem believes.
Speaking at the recent Hong Kong Ship Finance Forum, Ben Shao, head of learning and development at Wallem, said it was critical the industry looks beyond traditional roles to expand its talent pool and nurture staff progress.
A wider talent pool is needed to address the challenges shipping faces and to attract young professionals keen to join the maritime sector but not necessarily interested in going to sea.
‘We need to start competing for talents in the data science, statistics and AI-related fields,’ Mr Shao said, to find people who possess the knowledge and skills to optimise new technologies and tools that can drive the efficiency of business operations.
‘We must expand the way we think about work and our business model, analyse and identify the competitive advantages of shipping so we can tell a compelling story and compete against the likes of investment banks, consulting firms and technology titans in attracting such talents.’
For Wallem, it is about looking beyond its Hong Kong base and considering the Greater Bay Area, which has a population of 86 million and a GDP of US$2 trillion.
But beyond that, Asia is a huge talent pool that the ship management industry can collectively utilise to attract talent and management to play a pivotal role in propelling the maritime sector into the next era.
Many Asian governments and marine departments have done a great job in promoting the sector with excellent initiatives, but often, they are small in scale and are targeted at preparing young graduates for a seagoing career.
‘By looking beyond traditional roles in the sector, maritime companies can benefit from having local authorities connecting us with universities in the region that have graduates from both engineering and non-engineering disciplines,’ he said.
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