The three maritime schools involved in the TEAMS project have investigated which soft skills are missing in their curricula. The gap analysis is a representation of their findings.
On the 9th of December 2019, the TEAMS consortium invited different representatives of the maritime sector for a symposium at Antwerp Maritime Academy, Belgium to discuss the importance of soft skills for maritime professionals. The audience was invited to discuss their ideas on which soft skills are essential for maritime professionals.
The soft skills identified in these discussions were catalogued according to the framework provided by Tiimiakatemia. This framework, developed at JAMK University of Applied Sciences, typically divides soft skills into seven categories: Digital skills and IT, Learning and research, Creativity and innovation, Leadership and management, marketing and sales, Business competences and Communication. This framework is elaborated in the TEAMS Blueprint.
Each of the three maritime higher education institutes in the TEAMS consortium has then analysed its own curriculum and listed how these skills are taught throughout. This resulted in a gap analysis between the specific required soft skills by leading maritime-related companies and the way national maritime education institutions provide the development of these soft skills in their curricula. This forms the necessary baseline for the development of the TEAMS Blueprint, which will be developed in the next phase of the project.
