A completely new, more extensive and profound approach. Interview with Frederik Naumann.
Written by Gesine Stück
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Monday, 19 April 2010
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Frederik Naumann is responsible for corporate relations and public affairs at SARTORI & BERGER GmbH & Co. KG, a port agency and port services company covering all German ports and the Kiel Canal. In addition to its 'traditional' services – port services for cargo ships – SARTORI & BERGER has recently specialized in port and passenger services for cruise vessels and ferries. The company has approximately 200 year-round employees as well as 40 trainees.
SARTORI & BERGER was one of the first NMU Stakeholders supporting the vision of the Northern Maritime University. This is because of the company’s interest in the continuous improvement of the education in maritime business in an international context. Therefore, the company voluntarily took part in the test run of the module „Maritime Transport & the Environment“ (MT&E), developed by the following NMU partners: Swedish Environmental Institute, University of Applied Sciences Bremen, University of Applied Sciences Lübeck and University of Applied Sciences Kiel.
Susanne Neumann, NMU coordinator of the MT&E module conducted the interview.
Susanne Neumann (SN): Hallo Mr Naumann. Thank you very much for taking part with your company’s apprentices in our course “Maritime Transport & the Environment” and providing us with your feedback as specialists in maritime industry. Why do you think environmental issues in a maritime transport related context are so important to learn about?
Frederik Naumann: The worldwide transportation industry is facing immense challenges with regard to emissions reduction and a sustainable use of fuel. Shipping is already a comparatively eco-friendly and efficient mode of transportation, but a lot remains to be done in order to further reduce our environmental footprint. A major task in this respect is to increase the environmental awareness of employees working in the maritime sector. The contribution of each and everyone will be required in order to succeed in reducing resource consumption and emissions. Respective knowledge will become a key qualification in future and should thus constitute an essential part of any shipping-related education already today.
SN: How does environmental management play a role in your company?
FN: In recent years our clients have become ever more sensitive with regard to environmental issues. Many of them have already implemented an EMS according to the ISO 14001 standard, and in some cases we see clients implementing tailored in-house systems which go even far beyond the procedures defined by ISO 14001. Environmental awareness and a sustainable business approach have become part of our clients' self conception and turned into an important sales argument. We as a service supplier of the shipping industry have responded to these demands by implementing a strict environmental policy ourselves, and our objective is to increase the sustainability of our services day by day. An example are the tugmasters (terminal tractors) which we deploy in Kiel and Rostock to handle unaccompanied ferry cargo: We have deliberately chosen machines with extremely low noise and exhaust emissions, and we regularly upgrade the tugmasters fleet in order to apply always the best material available on the market.
SN: In Germany we have a dual system of vocational training (partly in-school training, partly in-company training). To what extent do your apprentices learn about the negative effects of maritime transport on the environment and the means to reduce these effects during their apprenticeship? Do you think that our course fills a gap?
FN: It definitely fills a gap. There have been lectures about the negative impacts of shipping in the past, but the NMU course constitutes a completely new, more extensive and profound approach to this important topic. Also the way of presenting this topic is new, and from the reactions received from our apprentices I must say that it obviously fits the demand very well. They are aware of the topic and wish to obtain more in-depth information about it, the NMU course was a perfect opportunity to do exactly that.
SN: What were your main expectations for the course and had these expectations been fulfilled?
FN: We had three main expectations: At first, we wanted our apprentices to obtain comprehensive, up-to-date knowledge about the environmental footprint of shipping and possible approaches to reduce it. Secondly we wanted our apprentices to experience a new way of learning. And last but not least I personally hoped that our apprentices might develop an interest in studying as an approach to continue and intensively their individual education after completion of the apprenticeship with SARTORI & BERGER. I am glad to say that all three objectives have been fully accomplished. We notice that those apprentices who participated in the course are bringing increased environmental awareness and factual knowledge into the company, something which definitely helps to further improve our performance. And obviously they found the new learning approach experienced during the NMU course attractive, as I received actually a number of enquiries of apprentices who are now thinking about studying at a university after their graduation as Shipbrokers and Liner Agents.
SN: What would you like us to change? Is there anything you would like to improve?
FN: Honestly I would be very glad to see a similar NMU course taking place in the future, and there is not a lot which I would actually like to see changed. The only thing would perhaps be a split of the face-to-face lecture into two consecutive seminar days, as the amount of knowledge communicated to the apprentices is obviously very extensive and exceeding capability of some of them, not least since they are normally not attending lessons held in English.
SN: Our course is offered as blended learning training (e-learning combined with a one-day kick-off face-to-face lecture). This helps employees to keep their knowledge up-to-date without longer absenteeism while being on further education for several days. Hence, life-long learning should be facilitated by such a blended learning course. What do you think how the future of employees’ further education will be like and is the NMU’s concept of offering such a blended learning course a step towards the future?
FN: It is a step forward and I agree that life-long learning will require tools such as blended learning training. Nevertheless I do not think that this approach will be able to replace conventional advance training products – which require a certain absenteeism of the respective employees – completely. In fact I regard this absenteeism not only as a challenge or problem but also as an opportunity – the respective employees are getting out of their conventional working environment, they communicate with each other and probably even with staff from other companies, new connections are established, ideas conceived and team-building is enhanced. Blended learning training cannot provide these communicational and teambuilding-related advantages in quite the same way. Thus I think that we need a combination of conventional advanced education and blended learning training products in order to meet the challenge of lifelong learning.
SN: Do you plan similar involvement in the future?
FN: Definitely yes. We appreciate our involvement with the NMU, we hope that we can even intensify this cooperation and we are willing to support similar training programs as the one which we have just seen in future.
Thank you very much for your time and your engaged cooperation, Mr. Naumann.