“The private sector has had to implement initiatives to ensure generational renewal and a pool of workers, but the city has significant educational shortcomings; there are no programs in the city of Valencia to study careers related to the sea and the Blue Economy.”

“Whoever controls maritime transport controls the global economy.”

“The job of Merchant Marine has wide employability. In 2023, 2.2 million ships entered the main ports of the EU.”

The Rei Jaume I Awards organize a day dedicated to maritime transport with specialized speakers in the maritime sector: “Blue Economy and Maritime Transport” organized together with Valencia Port, ANAVE, and Boluda Corporation.

The Valencian Foundation Rei Jaume I Prizes (FPRJ) held the first day dedicated to professional opportunities in the maritime transport sector. For this, it had the help in organizing from Boluda Corporation, Valencia Port, and the ANAVE Association.

At the inauguration, Mar Chao, president of the Valencia Port Authority, highlighted the Port of Valencia as “an engine of responsible growth committed to the environment.” Vicente Boluda, president of the Rei Jaume I Prizes, AVE, and ANAVE, who always has words of gratitude for Professor Santiago Grisolía, also warned about the current lack of personnel in the maritime sector. For his part, the Minister of Environment, Infrastructure, and Territory, Vicente Martínez, emphasized that “the Community has 500 km of coastline, around 15% of GDP is generated in the maritime strip, and more than 70% of the population lives around the coastal strip,” committing to protect it “with the utmost respect for the environment.”

The day began with a talk by the general director of ANAVE (Spanish Shipowners’ Association), Elena Seco, who spoke about the “Sectoral Coordinates and Current Overview of Maritime Transport.” Seco explained why maritime transport is essential for the economy of countries, especially for a continent like Europe. “There is no other means of transport capable of moving the quantities of goods that maritime transport does; whoever controls maritime transport controls the global economy, as we are seeing with Donald Trump and his initial political actions.”

“Spain is the third country in the world in global transport,” confirmed Seco, “and the fifth in passenger transport, but 10 billion euros of our balance depend on other countries that are not ours, and Spain is only the 12th country in the European economic area by fleet controlled by its national shipowners. And according to a study by the cluster, maritime transport is the blue economy activity that induces the most added value,” he concluded.

He was followed in the turn of interventions by the head of the maritime training area, Francisco Javier Benítez, who explained “the career of a merchant marine: values and attributes of a profession with a future.”

Benítez, head of the maritime training area at the Directorate General of the Merchant Marine, commented that this profession “can provide values in multidisciplinary work teams in different areas of the blue economy: shipbuilding, port public works, appraisal, port sector, recreational boating, auxiliary industry, research, and training in nautical sciences and maritime tourism.” For the highest authority in training in the Merchant Marine, the job of a merchant marine “has high employability: thus, in 2023, a total of 2.2 million ships entered the main ports of the EU, which means a need to fill job positions.” Benítez spoke about the near future, which will be “in operating autonomous vessels up to 25 meters and, as an immediate future, the creation of professional titles for port traffic in accordance with the STCW.”

Jorge Olcina, professor of regional geographical analysis at the University of Alicante, concluded the session by discussing “Climate change, risk management, and sustainable development,” presenting climate change as an opportunity: “Against climate extremism, the commitment should be to science and avoiding magical solutions.” Olcina proposed four types of planning: territorial, hydrological, economic, and emergency planning, and called for a socio-cultural change as an opportunity to do things right.”

After the break, a round table was held moderated by journalist Paco Prado, founder and director of Grupo Diario del Puerto, featuring Antonio Torregrosa, manager of the Valencia Port Foundation; Francisco Tirado, HR director at Boluda Corporation; Mercedes Pardo, CEO of the Spanish Maritime Institute; Javier Garat, president of the Spanish maritime cluster; and Gustavo Santana, director general of the Merchant Marine.

Tirado acknowledged that “Valencia continues to turn its back on the sea and we have not been able to transmit or promote a sector with a lot of potential.” He also confessed that “the private sector has had to launch initiatives to ensure generational replacement and a pool of workers, but the city has significant educational deficiencies; there are no studies in the city of Valencia to study careers related to the sea and the blue economy.” He has advocated for “the role of Boluda’s firm to reach agreements in more than 60 centers to cover these shortcomings.”

Mercedes Pardo said that the company must approach the candidate and retain them and defended the measures her institute has taken to facilitate generational replacement in addition to advocating being present at job fairs, study fairs, career fairs, etc. to explain to young people what the professions related to the blue economy consist of.

Garat has proposed linking the maritime world with our young people, “that is our pending subject. It is necessary to raise awareness in society about the blue economy and its multiple possibilities and career opportunities. An attractive sector and a stable legal framework are needed, with competitive companies that generate wealth and employment with the same rules and regulations for everyone. Speaking the language of young people and being present on social media.” Meanwhile, Santana has insisted that “there is a deficit of maritime professions, it is a beautiful but very hard profession. We want to attract young people, but the youth cannot be aligned.”

To conclude, the round table moderator, Paco Prado, agreed that we have a problem of a lack of vocations and personnel, and acknowledged that “we need to make a self-critique regarding the lack of communication to society to attract and secure more workers. The training exists, but it is insufficient. The sector is passionate,” he emphasized, “but we need to motivate young people, inform them, and coordinate that information. It is a privileged sector with more and more job opportunities that need to be communicated.”

The event was closed by Benito Núñez, Secretary General of Air and Maritime Transport, who confessed that, as a naval engineer, he sees “how we are facing a different world where, to attract vocations and new workers, we will have to treat them very well if we do not want them to move to other sectors. The generational replacement in the maritime sector in Spain and Europe hinders technological capacity, which will become a drama.” He concluded by encouraging the pursuit of “initiatives such as promoting the generation of vocations through exercises of transparency and openness to society.”

The event was held at the Edificio del Reloj at the Port of Valencia, before an audience that filled the main hall where the event was moved due to full registration capacity.

If you want to watch the recording of the day:

And the second part: