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The IORA Foresight on Education and Training for Port Workers: A Case Study

The shipping industry has become highly specialised and given its inherent services characteristics it is inseparable from ports. Ports are heavy, long term investments and in terms of economics, often affected by the derived demand factor in shipping. The industry is highly competitive thus higher levels of skills are needed for port operations. Ships are getting bigger to derive the advantages from scale of economies but comparatively long port stays can make ports uncompetitive. These factors make skilled workers in port is a fundamental need. However, as usual in many other aspects of the shipping industry, it has not yet realised the seriousness of the issue. In realization of the seriousness of this issue five countries belong to Indian-Ocean Rim Association (IORA) collaborated via a working group, led by the Australian Government and the Department of Education and Training, initiated the development of transnational occupational standards. The pilot project initially considers only three key port occupations in order to support the skill development in port operations. Accordingly, three port occupations namely, gantry operator, port operations supervisor, and yard planner have been selected to develop occupational standards. In the process it has developed eleven core and elective occupational standards for these job roles and they were tested and validated in the five member countries. The countries are given the flexibility to propose most appropriate plan for implementation in respective countries.