Work process oriented competence development for the port of the future

The port of the future is likely to have specialized functions. Two examples of that are the fully automated handling of containers (i.e. loading, unloading, moving and storing in the harbor) and the handling of very large and heavy goods such as components for off-shore wind farms. Together with the trend towards specialization ports are facing the demographic change. Many of today's stevedores are older than 50 years, they are very experienced, but they will soon retire. This paper discusses these two developments and introduces a research approach based on the implementation of Serious Gaming as a mean to support work process oriented competence development for dock workers. The main questions behind this approach are: How can novice workers gain experience faster compared to the traditional way, and how can elder workers keep track with the introduction of new technologies likely to be implemented in the port of the future?