PTC: Greater visibility is needed to reinforce industry’s image

With regards to maritime decarbonization, Mr. Borromeo suggests that we should consider if our goals towards 2050 are realistic and if there is sufficient workforce to operate in the new environments safely and efficiently.  Overall, he notices that industry is trying to keep up with the ESG trends but remains fragmented in many areas. As such, industry needs to focus on talent acquisition, talent formation, talent deployment and management and above all, to become more extrovert.

SAFETY4SEA: What are currently the key challenges for shipping from your perspective? What are your suggestions to move forward?

Gerardo Borromeo: The key maritime industry concerns and challenges that we at the PTC Group have identified, which we need to effectively address in the period ahead, are reflected in the following questions:

• What technologies will make up the ship of the future, and what kind of seafarer skill sets will such technologies require?
• How do we attract the best and brightest of the next generations to become future global maritime professionals on board and on shore? We are competing for quality skills and talent with other possibly more attractive shore-based industries, particularly in the technology sector.
• How do we create alignment, shared understanding, a common language and a unified plan among Maritime Administrations, the shipowners, ship managers, crew managers, and education and training institutions so we are all working in a coordinated manner towards addressing the timing and execution of a maritime just transition effort in our industry, ensuring that no one gets left behind?

To model the way forward, there must be an agreement across all stakeholders that defines the ways in which people need to interact with evolving processes, as impacted by new technologies. This is a key challenge for labor-supplying countries like the Philippines. A vital component for preparing the way is to encourage the education sector in our country to adopt a more STEM or STEAM based approach to teaching and learning.  This is a necessary focus as we work to best prepare future generations for effective engagement in the 4^th and 5^th Industrial Revolutions and beyond.  Having a more STEM / STEAM based approach to teaching and learning will help reduce the skills gaps for future graduates helping them be more functionally literate as digitalization and automation increasingly get embedded in the workplaces (on board ships and their share-based operations).

S4S: What are the top priorities in your agenda for the next five years?

G.B.: In no particular order:

1. Implementing an effective Education and Training program from K to 12 and into the colleges, better enabling graduates to adopt STEAM-based learning.
2. Promoting 50 million conversations among our population to develop a better appreciation of the value and longevity of maritime careers, moving from a career at sea to be followed by a career in the shipping industry, shore side.
3. Growing the pool of potential maritime talent from the next generations, who are more tech savvy, to ensure that skills gaps will be limited.

S4S: What should be our key priorities for strengthening safety culture onboard and ashore?

G.B.: It is most important that all stakeholders on board, on shore, in maritime administrations, and port state controls – learn to speak the same “language”, establish a common understanding and interpretation of rules, policies, guidelines and operational procedures. This is necessary to be consistent in the application, implementation, monitoring, assessment and enforcement of rules and policies. It is true whether we are speaking about safety cultures or any critical and relevant topics impacting life on board a ship. The lack of coordinated understanding has often resulted in mistakes in execution – intended or unintended – and even in terms of monitoring and enforcement. The net result being confusion, errors, losses incurred, damage done and more. Being an inherently global and multi-cultural industry, the onus is on the shipping industry to create such consistencies in communicating and help shape cultures, mindsets and attitudes to issues such as safety and well-being.

S4S: Are you satisfied with progress made towards maritime decarbonization so far? What would you like to see up to 2030?

G.B.: A missing piece and an area for further clarity in the debate among a majority of industry stakeholders is being able to simplify the math that is required to really understand:

1. what it will take to get to Net Zero Emissions by 2050
2. what a ship needs to do to contribute, in this regard
3. what it will cost a ship to achieve such a status – from a hardware standpoint and equally important from a software / people standpoint

In addition, it is also not so clear for many whether getting to Net Zero Emissions by 2050 is a realistic goal or if there is another way to get there outside of the utilization of new fuels. There are many moving parts in the equation of new fuels that all stakeholders need to understand, such as how these fuels will be produced and if they will really achieve their objectives of contributing to Net Zero Emissions.  Assuming fuel can be produced, will it be available in quantity, at prices and locations that will allow shipping operations to fully transition into such fuel types. The debate on the final solution is still years away.  Meantime, what do we do to prepare for the new technologies?  Countries like the Philippines, that are not the exponents of new technologies, will have a lot of reskilling and upskilling to do in anticipation of the “what will be”. Until we get these pieces all lined up, it will be hard to feel comfortable that the way forward for crew management companies and even Shipmanagement operations is clear and doable.  Ultimately, for us to succeed, we must have the right skills sets when and where needed.  So the goal of Net Zero Emissions is not just about the availability of fuels, but also the availability of the people to operate in the new environments safely and efficiently.

S4S: What are the key actions that will make a step change in industry’s performance across a zero-emission future?

G.B.: For countries like the Philippines, it is not to wait until a technical solution is found and agreed by all.  Rather, those of us who are already part of the maritime workforce need to keep re-educating ourselves now, while ensuring that future generations are given a STEM / STEAM based program of learning in order to minimize potential skills gaps in the future. As we move through the various industrial revolutions, it is critical for the population of any country to be as technical and technology-literate as possible.  Functional literacy in technology will help minimize skills gaps, it will help Individuals shape the needed mindsets to set the stage for a population to live effectively within ecosystems that will be driven by digitalization and automation in just about all aspects of life and community living. The better prepared the population is, through anticipative education that teaches one how to keep learning and how to learn over time, then the better able to cope with change they will be.

S4S:  Do you believe the maritime industry is moving in the right direction? What do you see as the defining ESG trends driving maritime toward the future?

G.B.: The industry is trying, but it remains fragmented in many areas – from governance, to monitoring and enforcement, to education and training, and in terms of ensuring that crew are trained in a timely manner for the emerging skill sets required.  On this last point, the main debate that arises is who should pay for reskilling and upskilling.

The industry should consider three elements that need to be well balanced and coordinated:

• talent acquisition
• talent formation
• talent deployment and management

To get to this stage is difficult, but these are the necessary next steps to ensure we will get “there” by the time we are needed “there”, wherever “there” is in the overall technology timeframe.

S4S: What key lessons have you learned during your time in the industry, and what advice would you give to the next generation of shipping? Why do you believe young people should consider a future within the maritime industry?

G.B.: Keep thinking about the future. Around 12 years ago, I started to use the year 2050 as our target.  Not because it was declared as the date when the shipping industry is to achieve Net Zero Emissions (our thinking predated that announcement) – but because, back then, that was the point when the Philippines was expected to breach a population level of 150 million.  Given the rapidly changing world around us, driven by various industrial revolutions, the questions that popped up revolved around how we would cope with all these people – new entrants into society and the workforce of the future.  How would they be employed?  What would be relevant then? Thinking ahead, we decided that what was important was to figure out how to best “imagineer” the future. Then, working backwards to the present, outline what we needed to do today to ensure we remain relevant in all forms by the time 2050 came around.

Several things stood out that we needed to fully understand, embrace, better control and work with, and effectively monitor. These were: people, process and technology. Managing branding and image as these are equally important elements that drive interest and engagement from the user side as well as from the service provider side. Working to deliver continuous and enduring value in a sustainable manner to one’s clients and your stakeholders. Being mindful of our responsibility to embrace and deliver on as many UN SDGs as possible in the work that we do. Projecting what we do in terms of making a difference, striving to make a positive impact – big or small – so that one’s relevance never fades.

S4S: What actions should we take to collectively create an inclusive and attractive industry?

G.B.: Build an image of the shipping industry that helps many understand what exactly the industry does.  Shipping sits at the center of a global supply chain. It is important that the general public knows exactly what value we bring to them.  Effectively defining “how we move the world in more ways than one.”  This is not an easy narrative to piece together.  How should we tell our story and who should tell the story.  What kind of a story will be most meaningful and who should pay for such a story or stories to be told? These are some of the main challenges that have limited our ability to be better understood and to be seen as an attractive industry to be part of.

S4S:  What is your wish list for the industry and/or regulators and all parties involved to build a more sustainable and resilient maritime industry?

G.B: Get a better handle on what it will take to build and execute on global governance models that:

• all can easily understand
• are not prone to misinterpretation
• are clear and executable by all persons globally

Eliminate regional competition on rules, regulations and implementing guidelines that tend to blur or counteract what should otherwise be seen as very good global governance standards. To the extent possible, we should work for a more equitable means of managing through geographies, cultures, and circumstances.

S4S: If you could change one thing in the shipping industry from your perspective, what would it be and why?

G.B.: Create greater industry visibility to help reinforce in the public’s mind how important the shipping is – at the same time ensure that there is more standardization in every aspect of the work we do – hardware wise and as a result in the skill sets needed by our maritime professionals.

S4S: What is your message/ advice to industry stakeholders to stay competitive amid these challenging times?

G.B.: Keep thinking of the future and what we need to do today to enable us to get to that future spot, armed and ready. Embrace a people, process, and technology mindset in everything we do. Understand that we live in a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous world – therefore the best way we anticipate the future is to model dynamic systems at work in order to anticipate various outcomes and develop the flexibility necessary to adjust almost on the fly, as needed. Keep learning how to learn – working to remain relevant as best as possible. Understand that the shipping industry moves the world, and we should be very proud of the critical role we play in global trade.

The views presented are only those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.