People development

SCOPE FOR DEVELOPMENT

COVID-19 has an impact on organization of training courses

Needless to say, the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021 had a major impact on our training activities. The restrictions meant that a large number of in-person training courses had to be postponed or cancelled. The number of formal training hours (not including hours spent in on-the-job training) recorded was therefore considerably lower during the “coronavirus era” than before.

The training and intake of new dock workers was also seriously disrupted, as OCHA (Opleidingscentrum voor Havenarbeiders, training center for dock workers) was unable to fully resume its activities for a long time. Considerable efforts will be required to regain lost ground in this area.

Despite the difficult circumstances, we managed to conduct a great deal of essential (safety) training on site in a COVID-proof way, thanks to the extra efforts made by various departments. We organised a large number of half-day HSE refresher sessions for different categories of dock workers, we had all technicians from the Rolling Stock department attend a two-day training course to obtain the HEV2 certificate in order to work safely on hybrid straddle carriers, and the first group of managers was able to attend the two-day “SafeLeader” workshop.

The pandemic also resulted in a certain digital boost in the area of training, speeding up the adoption of online and hybrid forms of training. The CTO (Certificate in Terminal Operations) programme, which is available on our corporate e-learning platform and comprises 24 short online modules covering all operational aspects of the terminal business, is a good and popular example of this.

Training for Health & Safety

SafeLeader programme

In early 2021, the DP World head office launched the SafeLeader programme, a training course that falls within the global HSE pillar Leadership & Engagement. The programme teaches managers how to be good leaders, with an emphasis on safety. In September 2021, the first group of 13 employees received physical training from two consultants on behalf of head office.

Workshop on the role and legal obligations of the hierarchical line

In 2019 and 2020, a lawyer specialising in labour law gave a number of workshops for managers (chief foremen, foremen, management) on the role and legal obligations of the hierarchical line. During this workshop, managers were given numerous insights into their responsibilities in several areas, including the safety of their employees.

General HSE refresher course

Over the last three years, all regular dock workers at DP World have undergone an internal general HSE refresher on the most important safety and environmental aspects at our terminal. The four-hour course was conducted across the various dock workers’ shifts.