– THEME: The young seafarers –
A TRUSTED COLLEAGUE
GIVES SECURITY IN A NEW WORLD There can be a lot of questions that need answering when young seafarers start a life of work at sea. 22-year-old Amanda Jespersgaard gets feedback, support, and security from 40-year-old Karina Kærvang Jensen, who gets to share her own experiences and enthusiasm for shipping in return.
By Kirstine Thye Skovhøj, Journalist
22-year-old Amanda Jespersgaard is excited. Since she landed an internship with MAERSK SUPPLY SERVICE she has been looking forward to hearing which ship she is joining and where in the world it will be. It is a dark winter Thursday night at her home in Aalborg, Denmark when she gets the call. Three days later her internship begins, and she must be ready to sign on to MAERSK LIFTER – an offshore tug/supply ship – in Montrose, Scotland.
in front her in the chilly winter night, she clearly remembers. “Just at that very moment it occurred to me what I had gotten myself into. There was no way back. I had to meet lots of new
Finally, she can finish packing her bag, and finally she knows which ship she will be spending the following 11 weeks on. Amanda Jespersgaard has never been out travelling on her own before. That is why she appreciates that she is joining the ship together with a female cadet from SVENDBORG MARITIME SCHOOL.
and wondering: Have
“We flew to Aberdeen and drove in a big taxi bus from the airport to the harbour. It was time for the crew to change, which meant we were quite a few people joining the ship at the same time.” The big ship was like an immovable giant
I pictured myself ”being alone and not knowing what to do they remembered that I am joining the ship today?
”
people and learn lots of new things. I was extremely excited and tense, but I also had a good feeling. I had been at school for half a year, where I had heard lots about what I was now finally about to experience for myself,” Amanda Jespersgaard says. The next hour went by with dragging all her carefully packed luggage on board,
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greeting the captain, and opening the door into the cabin that would be her home for the coming weeks. “I was very surprised. The cabin had a desk, a bed, a sofa, and a very nice bathroom – much better conditions than I had dared hope for.” As well as her luggage, Amanda Jespersgaard brought half a year of schooling from MARTEC, a maritime school in Frederikshavn where she is studying Maritime Transport and Nautical Science. She also had a stream of good advice from her mentor Karina Kærvang Jensen, who works as a Decarbonisation Integration Manager at MAERSK SUPPLY SERVICE in Copenhagen. Karina Kærvang Jensen works with energy-optimizing the MAERSK fleet and creates projects to reduce their carbon footprint and contribute to MAERSK SUPPLY SERVICE’s green profile. The two seafarers were matched by DANISH SHIPPING´s mentoring agreement, which Amanda Jespersgaard discovered
