The PortSkill 4.0 research project saw the presentation of the cutting-edge, digital training centre at HHLA Container Terminal Altenwerder (CTA) in Germany.
The center is being set up to grapple with the demands of digitalised port operations and is expected to offer cutting-edge learning technologies and customised training solutions.
In the past two years, analyses of the operational, administrative and technical job profiles in German seaports were conducted within the PortSkill 4.0 project in order to investigate how working life is changing with digitalisation and automation. In addition to the expected changes to jobs in the port as a result of automation and digitalisation, new tasks and roles are also being created that require specific skills, including some completely new ones.
In the training centre at CTA, employees can receive training in these skills to prepare them for the future. With this combination of cutting-edge technology, networking learning and the analysis of future job requirements, the ma-co digital training centre offers a future-oriented platform for qualifying the port specialists of the future. The training courses and content are being tested in an initial step as part of PortSkill 4.0 and will be made available to the public after the end of the project.
Dr Melanie Leonhard, Senator for Economy and Innovation, said, “With this project, we want to prepare companies and employees for taking on future challenges in the transformation process – and we will be faced with further changes, particularly in light of the lack of skilled workers, that we will be able to deal with together in a positive way.”
At the same time, Torben Seebold, Chief Human Resources Officer at HHLA and Chairman of the Sociopolitical Committee of ZDS, believes “the targeted and modern professional development of employees is a critical factor for successfully maintaining and building on the competitive advantage of the German port sector.”
In addition to integrating haptic elements, the project also focusses on testing virtual learning environments. The heart of the centre is a large video wall with six screens that, together with their consoles, serve as a control centre. Another room is equipped with a remote control console for container gantry cranes, storage cranes and rail gantry cranes, for example, while a separate room provides the user with virtual reality applications for immersive training experiences. The rooms at CTA are linked with the ma-co sites in Hamburg and Bremen so that participants can meet one another within a shared virtual training environment regardless of their physical location.
The practical, application-oriented and realistic setting significantly increases the transfer of learning. Hazardous and unusual situations can also be simulated for training purposes in a safe environment. Furthermore, training content and scenarios can be adjusted and managed much more flexibly, enabling individual learning requirements and needs to be better taken into account.
André Kretschmar, Head of Maritime Economy at German trade union ver.di, commented, “Employees need to be taught the future skills for their specific target group in order to be able to benefit from the technological developments in the digital transformation and for jobs to be secured with good collective agreements over the long term.”
