Eight APM Terminals employees representing the company’s four operating regions and the Hague head office have recently completed the Maersk International Shipping Education (MISE program), and are eager to move ahead to new challenges and assignments following the two-year accelerated management training program’s conclusion.
Participants in the two-year mini-graduate school were selected in a highly competitive process from candidates nominated from throughout the AP Moller-Maersk Group, which employs over 120,000 people in 130 countries. The program combines practical applications and coursework with broad international exposure and experience. There were a total of 303 participants from the Group’s various divisions in this year’s graduating class.
Five out of the eight APM Terminals’ participants finished within the top third of the program based upon examination results and evaluations. Among the subjects included in the 15-course curriculum were Terminal Management, Economics, Maritime Law, Logistics and Human Resources. Other skills addressed in the program include project management and networking. The strong and lasting relationships forged over the course of the two years are one of the most important aspects of the program.
“Far and above anything else, the friendships gained through the MISE program are the most valuable to me. The opportunity to work with this international group has been invaluable throughout my traineeship”, said Kyle Trebotich, an analyst in Terminal Operations in the Charlotte, North Carolina office of the APM Terminals’ Americas Region.
“The people within the program also added value in improving interpersonal and intercultural sensitivity, this of course is a skill which can be used privately as much as professionally, within your home country or outside, it helps to become a better listener and pay attention to diversity” noted Carolin-Carmen Neubauer, who is working in the Marketing Department of the Suez Canal Container Terminal in Port Said, Egypt, which saw throughput surge by 34% in 2008.
Mixing classroom education modules with practical on-the-job training at various facilities and assignments brought opportunities for exposure to new and different methods and ideas. A week of ‘Innovation and Entrepreneurship’ at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, in Cambridge, Massachusetts was a section of the program that Monsurat Nurudeen, of the newly opened Dubai Africa, Middle East and India Regional Headquarters, particularly enjoyed. “The professors had an unorthodox approach to education; one which made it easy to relate case scenarios to cases we come across while at work,” he observed.
Other participants included Kim Miles, also from the Charlotte office, Ruben Rijken, Nienke Van Veen and Maarten Verheijen, The Hague, Netherlands from The Hague office, Leon Xunqian Chen, from the Singapore office in the Asia Pacific Region and Sam de Wilde, of APM Terminals Zeebrugge, from the European Region.
Ongoing education and training of the diverse 19,000 member workforce worldwide is a priority at APM Terminals, which also offers the two-year APM Terminals General Management (MAGNUM) curriculum for selected personnel within the company, among other programs and local initiatives.
