Last week at London International Shipping Week 2025, Spinnaker hosted a breakfast event and panel discussion in conjunction with MLA College and Clyde & Co to discuss the ever changing face of the maritime workforce.
The first panel discussion of the day posed the question ‘Are you struggling to find and retain the right people? How do we build a future ready workforce’
Chaired by Spinnaker CEO Phil Parry, this session aimed to answer the age old question of how the maritime sector can attract and retain the younger generation, especially in the times that we currently find ourselves where 40% of the maritime workforce is over 50.
He was joined by Jennifer Harrison, VP Training Solutions at ABS and Sustainable Maritime Operations Programme Manager at MLA College Alina Prylipko. We were also pleased to have 2 ‘Gen Z’ on hand to offer their perspective – Max Downton, Associate ESG Manager at Navigator Gas and Jeremy Liew, Engineer at ABS.
Max told the panel that he got into the maritime sector through an apprenticeship at Navigator Gas. This 2-year programme was partly funded by the government and partly funded by Navigator Gas. As part of the apprenticeship, he spent 4 days a week working in the office, and 1 day a week studying. He gained an MSc at the end of it and a job as Associate ESG Manager! Win Win! The audience were keen to know how the younger generation look for jobs and he told us that he found the apprenticeship on LinkedIn. He had not considered a role in maritime before, but Navigator stood out as an excellent company to work for and the rest, as they say, is history!
Likewise, Jeremy, who grew up in Malaysia and went to University in Newcastle, had not considered a career in Maritime and spent over 18 months looking for work and felt quite frustrated with the form filling. He was approached directly by ABS for his first role and he is now repaying the favour as an unofficial ambassador for the sector, visiting universities at career days to promote the industry.
Jennifer’s company, ABS are leading the way when it comes to new recruits. They have an Aspire graduate programme in the US, which enables those on the programme to experience many different departments within ABS to give them a taste for the business and the opportunity to decide where they’d like to end up. She also told us that ‘Just because it used to work, doesn’t mean it will now’. ABS adapted some of their training processes because it hadn’t moved with the times – things need to constantly evolve to take into consideration changes in technology.
Alina, has been at MLA College for 8 years and is a firm believer that diversity of task is what drives the younger generation. They are very clear in what they want from their studies and job. She was pleased to hear that there were alumni in the room, with Alex Walster from Navigator Gas being an MLA College graduate! She also wonders if we have become too ‘inconvenient’ for the younger generation, with application processes becoming more and more onerous.
The second panel discussion of the day was on the topic of “Occupational Health: The Hidden Cost of the Modern Workforce”. Chaired by Clyde & Co Employment Partner, Heidi Watson, this session tackled HR issues linked to poor occupational health. It promised to help delegates decode the early warning signs within their workforce and help managers respond confidently with compassion and confidence.
We were honoured to have HCA Healthcare Psychologist Simon Brittz on the panel who told the audience that 2/3 of the referrals that his company are seeing are related to mental health and anxiety, whereas in the past they would have been primarily Musculo-Skeletal. He advised managers to try and spot the warning signs and ‘notice aloud’ if they are concerned about someone’s change in behaviour and to feel confident to ask, ‘Is everything OK?’ and then again ‘Are you sure everything is ok.” Have you noticed there are changes in behaviour that might lead you to believe that that person is struggling? Have they started to have lunch on their own? Are they coming in to work late? If so then ‘noticing aloud’, might allow the employee the opportunity to open up.
The panel was also joined by Jennifer Murphy, HR Business Partner for UK P&I who stressed that employees should feel ‘Psychologically Safe’ and shouldn’t feel they have to mask any struggles they are having. She felt it was important that managers should not worry about asking the wrong questions, they should feel confident in being empathetic and curious and feel able to signpost members of their team to appropriate resources or people that can help – they don’t need to be the counsellor – they just need to be able to point them in the right direction.
Simon stressed that intervention at an early stage was key. Referrals caught early require far less sessions, than when the referral comes when the employee is already signed off sick.
The new Head of People & Culture from Navigator Gas, Alex Walster, was also present on panel and told us about Navigator’s strategic approach to wellbeing. They have a ‘Navigator Wellbeing’ Programme which encourages managers to be curious and ask questions of their team. It also encourages employees to try to understand the triggers of what makes them unhappy, and also happy. They are a strong believer in employee led initiatives such as the Navigator Running Club, and initiatives such as ‘Coffee Roulette’ also encourages people within the business, regardless of seniority or location, to catch up informally within someone they may never had the opportunity to speak to previously.
The overall takeaway was that although Occupational Health stats might be growing, this is most likely a positive thing, in that employees feel safe enough to bring these to their employer. Heidi noted that the younger generation are much happier to talk about mental health and wellbeing, and this should be applauded. Simon agreed that it can only be a good thing that people are more willing to speak out and feel ‘heard’.
Find out more about topics such as these at the Maritime People & Culture Conference taking place in May 2026.