Training - the key to world-class status

In the old days of the shipping industry, stevedores who came to work on the Port of Kingston were taught their skills on the job. The culture at the time would see new stevedores 'shadowing' the older men to learn their skills.

The Shipping Association of Jamaica (SAJ), in preparing the Port of Kingston for world class status, made the decision to change the way training was conducted. The move saw stevedores being cross-trained in a thrust to create a cadre of multi-skilled workers.

In 2004, the first set of stevedores was cross-trained as stevedore coordinators and equipment operators. The SAJ also began to enforce the minimum qualification standard for new recruits, insisting on at least three subjects at the Caribbean Secondary Education Certificate (CSEC) level; and a formalised training programme was introduced, which included an element of peer training.

Training was expanded in early 2010 when the SAJ introduced its apprenticeship programme. This programme includes two years of formal on-the-job training, including classroom sessions with rigorous assessments. Trainees who successfully complete programme are added to the pool of workers on the port.

CERTIFIED

In 2009, a pilot programme for the National Council on Technical and Vocational Education and Training (NCTVET) Level 1 was introduced. In that year, a total of 18 port workers participated in the programme. Over 100 are now certified under the programme, and SAJ attained the Accredited Training Organisation designation from the HEART/NCTVET. An ATO is an organisation which has implemented a competency-based training programme and adheres to standards and administrative systems approved by NCTVET.

With this new status, the SAJ can issue certification in Level 1 Stevedoring. This competency-based certification is intended to be one of the gateways to professionalism, raising the bar, in terms of the service the SAJ's workers provide to the Port of Kingston. As the Association prepares for the future and the plans to make Jamaica a logistics hub, it will intensify its cross training and NCTVET programme to ensure that all port workers are equipped for the tasks ahead.