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Disaster at sea
Disaster at sea - Harwich Haven Gateway role-play exercise
Haven Seaports Exercise 2006 was a role-play day, adapted from a British Airports Authority model, esigned to make students aware of the growing employment opportunities within the Haven Gateway and, more particularly, the career sectors found within the port of Harwich.
Haven Gateway Partnership promoted it. Essex Education Business Partnership organised it. Harwich International Port, Harwich Haven Authority, Trinity House Lighthouse Services, Stena Line, Essex Police, Essex County Council, Tendring District Council and University of Essex supported it. Pupils from six north Essex schools took part in it.
On arrival at Essex University, the students, aged 15 and 16, were presented with the challenge of taking control after a collision between a large container vessel, a cruise ship and a small pleasure yacht in dense fog outside Harwich.
Divided into six teams, all consisting of a mixture of students from the different schools, they took on the roles of six sectors found within the Port of Harwich: Passenger Bookings (Stena Line); Tourism and Media (Tendring District Council); Pilotage and Navigation (Harwich Haven Authority); Buoyage (Trinity House); Docking (Harwich International Port); and Emergency Services (Essex Police, Tendring District Council and Essex County Council).
Arranged in this way, the exercise gave students direct contact with personnel from different employment sectors within the maritime and logistics industry, giving them the opportunity to learn about job roles and responsibilities and develop skills in team work, time management, co-operation and communication. At the end of the exercise, the teams made five-minute presentations to representatives of the Haven Gateway Partnership, with a prize going to the winning group.
The presentations were judged on the following criteria:
• quality of presentation
• knowledge of job roles gained throughout the day
• clearly identifiable contribution of all group members
• how the scenario was dealt with
• creativity, practicalities and suitable solutions
The partnership used a questionnaire to evaluate the day, which was clearly a success. For example, 72% definitely found out about jobs and professions they did not know about before.
Richard Morton, the Haven Gateway's project manager, said, "We were really impressed by how well the students got to grips with the problems and came up with workable solutions. The representatives of the organisations involved threw themselves into the exercise, giving the students a real feel for the maritime world and the responsibilities of the different sectors involved.
A comprehensive information pack gave details of all the participating companies, their history, function and organisation, and the sort of jobs people in it did. The pack is available for use by other organisations in either part or whole format on the condition that it is credited to the organisations listed on the cover sheet.
Contact:
Richard Morton
Haven Gateway Partnership
Suites 3 & 5
The Centre
The Crescent
Colchester Business Park
Colchester
CO4 9QQ
T: 01206 848416
F: 01206 848419
M: 0776 9962554
E: richard.morton@haven-gateway.org
W: http://www.haven-gateway.org/