Debbie Cavaldoro, Chief Executive Officer at Port Skills and Safety Ltd (PSS), argues that in the next ten to twenty years, the way ports operate will radically change; however, safety must remain a key priority. PSS is the professional safety and skills membership organisation for ports, offering the Safety in Ports (SiPs) guidance as port safety guidance.
The organization supports a change in mindset: to move away from focusing solely on the numbers and types of incidents and instead embrace the available information in reports and incident investigations. “Ports cannot become safer if people don’t know how to act safely,” Debbie says, arguing for investment in skills training, safety learning, and resource sharing, as well as new technologies and AI. Concluding the interview, Debbie also advocates for more diversity and transparency in the port sector.
SAFETY4SEA: Tell us a few words about Port Skills and Safety. What is your organization’s philosophy for the maritime industry?
Debbie Cavaldoro: Port Skills and Safety Ltd is the professional safety and skills membership organisation for ports. We work in collaboration with our members to promote best practice and innovation, develop guidance, and deliver services to drive continuous improvement in safety and ensure a highly skilled workforce. We exist to make ports safer and want the port sector to become one of the safest places to work. Having an excellent safety culture across the sector is key to delivering safer ports and is at the heart of where skills and safety combine. PSS believes the combination of a focus on skills and safety is vital. Whilst it is more obvious that sharing safety data, learning, and best practice will make ports safer; it is ultimately people – their skills, knowledge, and commitment to a safety culture, that will make ports one of the safest places to work. Skills ensure there is an adequate workforce, with the skills to work safely and the ongoing development to adapt to changing requirements. Sharing safety learnings and resources can only make ports safer if people are able to understand and implement them. Ports cannot become safer if people don’t know how to act safely. Port workplace culture must promote safety as the main driver for performance, and people and the main drive for safety.
S4S: What are the top priorities on your agenda for the next five years?
D.C.: To maintain the PSS Safety in Ports (SiPs) guidance as industry-leading port safety guidance. The SiPs are produced in conjunction with industry, the Health and Safety Executive and Trade Unions to provide legal minimums and industry best standards for port operations. Over the next five years PSS will be updating all SiP documents. To maintain PSS as the standard setter for port skills. PSS is the custodian for National Occupations Standards (NOS) for port operations and oversee qualification based on those NOS. Over the next five years PSS will be reviewing and updating all pot-related apprenticeships. One top priority is for PSS to become data-driven in the next five years. This means increasing the amount and quality of the data we collect from ports and ensuring that sets the focus for where resources are most needed to deliver continuous improvement in port safety. By improving the quality of the data ports collect, the industry can also make a step-change in adopting new technologies including AI and computer learning. The sector needs to move away from thinking of data in terms of numbers and types of incidents, and move to data being ‘information’, that is all the reports, evidence, and investigations that come with any incident. This is where the root cause information lies and is where AI performs best for revealing the hidden root causes and patterns in incidents that humans might miss. From there we can better target improvements and become one of the safest sectors.
S4S: How will the industry’s workforce look in the future (2030/2050)? What can we expect to remain the same, and what will be different?
D.C.: In the next ten to twenty years, the way ports operate could radically change, and commonly-accepted practices – like working from height or working manually – could be completely irradicated. Different working practices, environments, equipment, and cargos will require vastly different skills to those required today. The way people choose to work is also changing and ports must adapt to ensure young people remain interested in a career in ports. The drive towards net zero and alternative fuels will continue to impact ports for many years, and unexpected changes, such as those seen from coronavirus, mean change is the new normal. Dynamic assessments of risk are needed more than ever, and this risk applies to both the risks related to the work being undertaken and the risk from a lack of skills and experience to deal with them. In the next ten years the port sector will see more innovators and disruptors entering the industry. This will likely lead to a move away from some traditional working methods, but care must be taken to not lose the vital knowledge that current port workers have around how ports actually work. Therefore, it is vital to retain and upskill current staff as well as attracting new skills, so that this mix results in the best practices being developed. Any changes that do come to ports must genuinely improve safety and not simply move risk to another part of the operation.
S4S: What are the key challenges for the maritime industry with regards to diversity and inclusion?
D.C.: The ports sector and the wider maritime sector still has a big diversity problem to overcome. When I first started in maritime around 15 years ago I was often the only female in the room at sector meetings. I could name two or three women who were in senior management positions at the time (and everyone was very generous with the advice and guidance) but most it was men who were twenty years older than me. Things have changed over the years and there are now a lot more visible women around, however, the fact that I can go to a large maritime meeting and know most women there suggests we are still a pretty small pool. I recently attended an event for CEOs and was once again one of only two women, so the issue is far from resolved. We haven’t really started addressing other aspect of diversity either. For ethnicity, the maritime industry tends the use the global face of maritime as the excuse to show this diversity, but the UK is a diverse nation and sector does not reflect that. Ports are often situated in coastal communities with high levels of deprivation and yet we still struggle to recruit outside of those who already have family connections.
S4S: What initiatives/ actions related to diversity and inclusion would you like to see taking place in the maritime industry?
D.C.: There is a clear and well-known commercial benefit to having a diverse organisation and leaders need to make deliberate steps to make these changes. If you always recruit in the way you have always recruited, you will always recruit the same people. If you lose young people or women after only a short period of time, then something about the culture of the organisation is enabling people to thrive. One of the best ways to find out how to recruit women, young people, or a more diverse workforce, is to ask the women, young people and people from ethically diverse backgrounds how they entered the sector, why they stayed (or left) and what their ambitions are. The benefits of mentoring can never be underestimated. Everyone – young and old, new starter and CEO, can benefit from a sounding board outside of their day to day role and employer. Bringing in a workplace scheme is great, but also support people to find their own mentors and support systems that work for them, every one is different and needs something different from mentoring – that’s the point!
S4S: Tell us about the Women in Ports group. What are the main challenges women face in the port industry, and how does the Women in Ports group address these challenges?
D.C.: The women in ports group is a fairly new and quite an informal group of women working in ports. Their challenges are the same as any women’s group in a traditionally male dominated workforce. And the solutions are also tried, tested and exhaustingly obvious. Listen to the women in the room, hear what they are saying, don’t underestimate them, don’t set them up to fail. Women working quayside in particular, have broken moulds to get there and will often have an approach that is different from ‘the way we have always done it’. Give them the space to tell you why and benefits will be returned ten-fold.
S4S: If you could change one thing across the industry from your perspective, what would it be and why?
D.C.: I would love to change the visibility of the sector. Too many people are unaware of the amazing range of jobs that exists across maritime, from the opportunity to go to sea, to exciting and rewarding jobs around the country in our ports. And best of all, many of these opportunities are available without having been to university first. A cadetship gives you expose of life at sea within the first year of training and the wide variety of apprenticeships in ports means there are roles for all levels of academic ability. This means young people can get well paid jobs and qualifications for life without the burden of ever-increasing university debt. Those like me who discovered maritime later in our careers can also benefit from moving into this sector. There are higher level apprenticeships for lifelong learning and if you have an ‘office job’ why not make that office next to the sea! I have rarely met a person once they have discovered working in maritime wants to leave the sector.
S4S: What is your key message to industry stakeholders to foster a more sustainable future for shipping?
D.C.: People, people, people. If we all invest in our maritime people the possibilities are endless. A safety culture makes for a more successful company and people make a safety culture. We all need to shout about what we do so more people hear about the opportunities, and we get a more diverse workforce. There are lots of people out there with great ideas for innovation, sustainability and technology, if we can bring one of those ideas into our ports the whole sector will be more sustainable.
The views presented are only those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
