International exchange program launched at the Port of Gothenburg

The first round of the new Gothenburg Port Authority exchange program is just concluded as two employees just returned from the Port of Hamburg to gather their impressions. ”I hope and believe that an opportunity like this will make us an even more attractive employer,” said Susanne Utbult, Head of Human Resources at the Gothenburg Port Authority.

The recruitment process started in the autumn of 2021, where Per Alkås and Dirk Wallem were the two employees who were accepted. They have just returned from the first round of exchanges which went to the Port of Hamburg – one of Europe's major ports that has a lot in common with the Port of Gothenburg. The two have completely different roles where Per works as a Port Officer, while Dirk works with the purchasing and procurement processes at the Gothenburg Port Authority.

Plans to start an exchange program with other ports started in 2019, but when the Covid-19-pandemic started, the project, like so much else, had to be postponed to the future. When society started opening up in 2021, the job of building an exchange program was resumed.

The idea is that future exchanges will take place with ports outside Europe, in the United States and Asia.