Viewers can read here below Baroness Vere’s speech, announcing the partners for the Government’s maritime Ukraine package, at London International Shipping Week.
“It’s always a pleasure to be on THV Galatea, I’ve been on board before in Harwich, where I got to understand the really important and often unsung work that happens. Because it’s so crucial the work that Trinity House does, and actually I don’t think it gets a lot over. It definitely needs to be higher up in our minds about how we make sure that all vessels are safe in our waters.
I think one of the other things over the course of LISW, the amount of change that is going to happen in maritime sector, and actually how that is going to play through into our skills, instead, the initial training and also subsequent professional development of our mariners, because we’re seeing an awful lot of new technology coming in, including AI, we’ve had two roundtables on on AI, which was absolutely fascinating about AI into the maritime sector, to make it more productive, safer, how to make it cleaner. That’s in the back of my mind, the skills needed for AI.
The second is in thinking about decarbonizing, the decarbonisation of the vessels, each one will have a different recquirements and may be able to do that, some electric, some ethanol. It’s going to be hugely complicated, the sorts of skills and the training that we need. But also there’s a huge potential opportunity absolutely massive, and I very much hope the UK can grasp that. What we need to do, and I think we’re all quite conscious of this, we need to retain our talent. In some areas is quite an ageing workforce, not very diverse, and I think there’s enormous amount that we need to do and in thinking about the retension, and of course, we need to recruit the skilled, diverse and dynamic workforce. One of my key focuses over the next few months is going to be providing for officer cadets to make sure that we’re making the most of it, stick it out and who are absolutely right for the job because we’re not recruiting as many people as we should. That’s absolutely clear to me, we’re got to figure out why that is and how we can make it better.
And I know that the industry is going to take a huge amount to attract talent. There is a push around diversity that’s getting out into educational establishments to tell them that fantastic careers that exist. You can go to sea for a period of time, and then come on shore. On shore there is a huge array of different industries, where we are the leaders in the world, in law, in insurance, and it really helps if you have that background at sea. So long may these efforts continue. It’s absolutely essential we secure Maritime’s future, both at home and abroad. And my Department is very keen in that effort.
As we know, last year we gave £2.4 million, which is really good for outreach, reaching out to hard to reach places, supporting maritime for girls, to encourage more women into the maritime sector. And of course, the project which was the skills for green jobs. As I mentioned earlier, green jobs are going to be key.
So I’m very keen to spend the next few months working with the industry, to make sure that we are doing our very best to support the industry in the long term. Because one of the other things to make sure is that our training institutions are well funded, I spent a day seeing what’s it’s like, getting in those vessels. It was so fun, just understanding what is safe. I was so impressed. I also went to the simulator, was completely seasick. I understood that the floor was not moving! I think they turned it up to 11 for me just to make sure that I experienced everything! It was brilliant fun.
And I really saw a lot of very keen young students, who are the future of maritime, not only in the UK, but all across the world. Of course, we do know that there is a place in Europe where the opportunity is denied, for a war that they didn’t choose. And that of course is Ukraine. And have learnt is that it is a very great seafaring nation. It produces a vast number of seafarers, I think 4% of seafarers, really, truly punching above its weight in terms of providing highly skilled seafarers.
In recognition of this, thinking about the future, about when the war was won, and Ukraine’s victorious, to recover and rebuild, many of you see that my Secretary of State, the Transport Secretary announced earlier this year, and this includes two things. So first of all, there’s funding for Ukrainians to come to the UK and study at our world training centres. And the second is innovative virtual reality training, where you can still be trained in maritime. That package was significant and timely, it was warmly welcomed. It will be really important in terms of Ukraine’s recovery. And of course, we had to figure out how to deliver it. And what do you do when you’ve got a really big problem for training, you turn to Trinity House, who took the opportunity and of course they are so brilliant, they have been supporting trainees trees for many, many years, and they are ideal for this. So therefore, we’ve been partnering with Trinity House to make sure to get the right people make sure that they are supported through the training. Second area, or the virtual reality area, and it’s also really, really important we’ve chosen KILO, a British business, cutting edge, virtual reality, innovation, and they are harnessing technology, and in order to provide maritime education is going to be a real game changer.”
This kind of innovation really matters, we are so pleased we can help students continue to learn, and new ones, so that they take their rightful contribution to the global maritime economy. So, I would now like to hand it over to Ukraine’s ambassador to United Kingdom, His Excellency.
