DFDS is launching a new talent programme in Türkiye aiming to attract young women to pursue a career in the maritime industry. The ambition is to increase the representation of women onboard DFDS’ vessels

DFDS is launching a new talent programme for students. The programme which is called “Waves of Talent” is designed to equip young individuals with the necessary knowledge, skills and hands-on experience to pursue a career as a Deck or Engine Officer in the maritime industry.

The Waves of Talent programme prioritises female students and the first group of 25 students participating in the programme are all female. Lack of gender diversity is a big challenge in the industry. According to the International Maritime Organisation the total percentage of female seafarers working in deck and engine roles in the maritime industry is just 2 %.

“Across the whole industry, the representation of female seafarers is too low. Our new talent programme is a part our efforts to bring more diversity to DFDS and the industry. We have an ambition to increase the percentage of female seafarers working in deck and engine departments to 20% by 2030. This is not going to be easy, but we want to push the development forward as much as we can,” says Anne-Christine Ahrenkiel, EVP and Chief People Officer at DFDS Group.

International programme: Students will train on vessels across the DFDS fleet

Although the programme is for students in Türkiye, the training has an international reach. The first group of students will sail on Turkish, Danish and British flagged vessels as part of their training, learning from captains, chief engineers and DFDS’ global crewing department.

“The talent pool of female students studying navigation and engineering in Türkiye is quite substantial and the interest shown in the programme so far has exceeded our expectations. We believe that supporting the development of talented young individuals and subsequently offering them careers in DFDS will add even more value to our business and will benefit the industry as a whole,” says Gemma Griffin, Vice President and Head of Global Crewing at DFDS.

The first group of students will begin their training in February.