This project has received funding from the European Union’s Erasmus+ programme under grant agreement 2018 – 3387/ 001- 001 (Project number 601186)

Technology and digitalisation are transforming the shipping industry. ‘Smart’ ships are coming into service, creating demand for a new generation of competent, highly-skilled maritime professionals. Europe is a traditional global source of maritime expertise and the four-year SKILLSEA project is launched with the aim of ensuring that the region’s maritime professionals possess key digital, green and soft management skills for the rapidly changing maritime labour market. It seeks to not only produce a sustainable skills strategy for European maritime professionals, but also to increase the number of these professionals – enhancing the safety and efficiency of this vital sector.

SKILLSEA is a multilateral project, engaging 27 partners from 16 European countries. It brings together social partners, maritime shipping industry, trade unions, research organizations, maritime academies and universities, education and training providers and public authorities. They all have solid expertise and knowledge on the maritime shipping sector, in order to produce a complete and sustainable strategy development cycle from skills needs identification and elicitation (current, medium and long term), design and delivery of VET, to pilot trainings, validation, revision, reapplication as well as stakeholders mobilization and awareness raising as sustainable implementation.

Constanta Maritime University is member at the international project with title:

Future-proof skills for the maritime transport sector (SKILLSEA)
The project coordinator is STC-Group.

Key aims and objectives include:

Analysing the effect of technological developments on the industry’s skills requirements;
An even better match between the industry’s skills needs and the education and training of maritime professionals;
Overcoming barriers to the mobility of maritime professionals;
Improving cooperation and synergy between education providers, maritime authorities and the industry;
Ensuring that Europe retains a world-leading access to maritime skills and experience for improved competitiveness;

Work packages

In order to achieve the overall objectives of the project, there are six interrelated work packages.

WP1: Skills Needs Identification
WP2: Future Proof Education and Training
WP3: Strategy

WP4: Awareness Raising and Stakeholders Mobilization
WP5: Implementation
WP6: Project and Quality Management

Work Package no. 1

The overall aim of WP1 is to analyze the skill need of the future maritime transport sector. Therefore, an analysis of current and future skills needs and existing mismatches and gaps for the maritime shipping sector will be conducted in the work package.

The lead organization is the Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU), Norway.

Some first findings of WP1 are made available as open-access deliverables

Current and skills needs
Future Skills and competence needs (Possible future development)

Work Package no. 2

The overall objective of WP 2 is to improve labor mobility across the entire maritime industry (e.g. from onshore to offshore) by closing skills gaps. By developing specific skills and competencies the overall employability of maritime professionals can be improved. There a toolbox with educational packages will be designed, piloted, and delivered to education and training providers in Europe. The Work Packages will furthermore set up structural cooperation between Maritime Education and Training Institutes. Finally, a professional development Guide for Business /Education Partnerships will be designed.

The Work Package is led by Svendborg International Maritime Academy (SIMAC), Denmark.

Work Package no. 3

Work Package 3 is about the strategic implementation and thus seeks to develop a pan-European strategy on future skills for the maritime transport sector. The team members will therefore create a framework of the strategic plan for the development of the Skills strategy. To support this process an online platform for sharing knowledge will be set up which will help actors, stakeholders and end-users to cooperate.

The Work Package is led by Eugenides Foundation (EF), Greece.

Some first findings of WP3 are made available as open access deliverables

Work Package no. 4

The objective of Work Package 4 is to raise awareness for the project and to mobilize stakeholders. Therefore, a dissemination and outreach plan is developed. This is important in order to increase the attractiveness of the sector especially for young adults and to ensure the sustainable implementation of the outcome of the project. A wide range of dissemination activities and materials to reach target-groups in the partner countries and across Europe will be used in order to make visible and practical the project outcomes.

The Work Package is led by Stichting STC Group (STC- Group), Netherlands.

The project runs from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2022.
More information can be found on the Skillsea website: www.skillsea.eu