There will be room for breastfeeding, as well as babies crying, babbling, and cooing, when parental leave takers from the shipping industry can push the pram by Amaliegade to visit the maritime parental leave café.

The parental leave café, dubbed Parent’SHIP, will offer lectures about everything from career advice, via work-life-balance, to the latest news from the shipping industry, along with delicious catering and time for a good chat with others in the same boat.

“We are extremely happy to finally be able to present our newest passion project “Parent’SHIP”. We hope that we, through the parental leave café, can strengthen the connection to both workplace and industry for the colleagues, who are on parental leave. And we hope that the initiative can help leave-takers maintain a strong network, while the job naturally isn’t the first priority,” says executive director of Employment Conditions, Recruitment & Training, Anne Windfeldt Trolle.

Exciting names on the programme

The autumn programme offers lots of interesting lecturers, including tv-darling and family-counsellor Lola Jensen, as well as nurse and author Helen Lyng Hansen.

Additionally, Coach Marie-Louise Thorup will be a continuous element of the café, where she will provide guidance on themes such as how to balance work-life and family-life, and she can be used as a coach in connection with the return to work.

Parent’SHIP is part of the many initiatives, related to Danish Shipping’s work for “More Women in Shipping”. Throughout this work, a parental leave café, specifically aimed at the shipping industry, has been requested multiple times, and for good reasons, thinks Anne Windfeldt Trolle.

“It can be a challenge to return to work after months of diaper changes and sleepless nights. But we need women to return after their parental leave, so I hope that Parent’SHIP can help keep them in the industry,” says Anne Windfeldt Trolle.

Parent’SHIP is arranged in cooperation with WIS-Denmark and takes place 10 times a year.