Girls form their sense of what’s possible for them between the ages of 11 and 14, and act on it between 15 and 18. The Women in Ports Schools Programme runs across both windows — showing girls a sector they would never otherwise encounter in a classroom, then giving them the workplace experience to actually enter it.
A global programme, open to schools and port employers anywhere in the world.
See how it works01The Problem
The maritime sector moves approximately 90% of global trade, employs millions of people across every continent, and runs on a far wider range of work than most people picture:
Almost none of that reaches a school careers lesson, anywhere. And many of these roles are entered through an apprenticeship or a technical route rather than a university degree — which makes them exactly the kind of career a fourteen-year-old is never told about.
By the time most young women encounter the sector — through a graduate scheme, an apprenticeship advert, a chance conversation — the subject choices that would have opened the door are already behind them.
This isn’t a talent problem, and it isn’t a problem confined to one region. It’s a visibility problem that plays out in port cities everywhere, and it starts years before recruitment does.
02The Pathway
The programme runs in two connected stages. The first opens girls’ eyes to the sector before subject choices narrow their options. The second turns that interest into real workplace experience, and workplace experience into a route in. A school can join at either stage — but the two together is what turns inspiration into careers.
Classroom workshops led by professionals working in the port sector. Potential career paths, described by the people working in them — at the age girls are still deciding what's for them.
A day inside a working port. Experience operations, decision making and strategy from across the site.
Work experience placements, job shadowing and employer-set projects with a named mentor.
Apprenticeship insight, application and CV support, understanding direct from an employer.
03The Programme
The Schools Programme is delivered through six models across the two stages. A school can start with a single workshop or go straight to a full employer partnership — and many begin with the early stage and progress over successive years.
Interactive sessions delivered directly in the classroom by trained WIP ambassadors — professionals working across operations, engineering, logistics, environmental science and commercial roles. Pupils hear directly from people doing these jobs now.
This is the fastest way for a school to bring the sector into the room.
A full day at a working port for a cohort of up to 30 students. A guided tour of live operations, paired with a Q&A session featuring professionals from across the site — Harbour Masters, Engineers, Logistics, Pilots, Environmental Officers. Pupils don't just hear about the sector; they stand inside it.
Our flagship model. WIP brokers a formal partnership between a port employer and a school. A small group of 10 to 15 girls work on an employer-set brief over six weeks, each matched with a named workplace mentor. The programme closes with a showcase, hosted by WIP, where pupils present their solutions directly to employer stakeholders.
This is the model that turns a single day of inspiration into a sustained relationship between a young woman and an employer.
A structured placement or block of job shadowing at a port employer, built around the student rather than parked at a desk. Students spend meaningful time with the teams they've heard about — operations, engineering, commercial, environmental — and leave with something concrete to put on an application.
Designed to meet the workplace-experience expectations schools are already working to, wherever those apply.
One-to-one mentoring with a woman working in the sector, running through the year a student is deciding what comes next. Mentors talk through options, sense-check plans, and give an honest account of how they got where they are — the conversation most girls have no way of accessing otherwise.
Practical support at the point of application: which apprenticeships and entry-level roles exist locally, what they actually ask for, and how to write an application that lands. Port partners flag live vacancies and apprenticeship intakes to the schools they work with.
04Where It Runs
The Schools Programme is not built around one country or one education system. It runs wherever there is a port, a school, and professionals willing to show up as ambassadors — and it is deliberately structured to travel: the models flex to fit whatever curriculum framework, safeguarding regime and employer landscape they land in, rather than exporting a single national template.
The second stage is shaped by where it runs more than the first. Many education systems expect pupils to have meaningful workplace experiences at set points in their schooling, and Models D to F are built to meet that expectation. Each country sets its own careers framework — so the stage maps onto the local system rather than assuming one.
If your port is in a country where WIP has not yet delivered, that’s a starting conversation, beginning with a Discovery Call to map the local school system, safeguarding requirements and potential school partners.
Every global delivery follows WIP’s safeguarding policy and is run with fully vetted ambassadors and port partners.
05What Ports Gain
Every diversity initiative further along the career pipeline — recruitment, retention, leadership development — is working against a pool of candidates that was already narrowed years earlier by subject choices made at 13 and 14. The Schools Programme is WIP’s answer to that: an intervention at the point where the future workforce is still deciding what’s possible for them.
However, no port commits people, time and budget to a programme on principle alone — so here is what participating ports get back.
You meet future candidates years before anyone else does, from a wider range of backgrounds than your current pipeline.
A standing relationship with local schools, in the communities your operations already sit in.
The roles hardest to fill are usually the ones nobody outside the sector has heard of. This is where that changes.
A visible, on-the-ground programme with real outcomes and engagement — meeting community and social-value targets.
Meaningful development opportunities for your existing employees, and a reason for the women in your organisation to be seen.
The second stage feeds directly into work experience, apprenticeship intakes and early-career recruitment — candidates you already know, applying for roles you already have.
First-hand insight into how the next generation perceives ports, and what puts them off. Helping you navigate recruitment campaigns.
06The Right Fit
Any school, globally, with girls aged 11–14, 15–18, or both. The first stage needs no employer relationship to begin — Model A is an introduction to the sector through classroom workshops. The second stage is for schools looking to meet their work-experience and careers-guidance commitments with an employer serious about diversifying their talent pool.
Any port or port services organisation, in any country, can support a school's engagement with the industry by committing people to the relationship. This could include hosting a port discovery day, setting project briefs, providing mentors, or contributing to classroom activities. Wherever there's a port and a nearby school, there's an opportunity to bring this programme to life. The second stage is where a school's engagement evolves into a recruitment pipeline. Models D to F engage students in the months leading up to apprenticeship and early-career applications, creating a direct pathway from education into employment.
07Questions
Yes. The Schools Programme is designed to be global from the outset. Wherever there's a port and a school nearby, WIP will work with you to adapt the programme to the local school system and regulatory environment. A Discovery Call is the starting point for any new country or region.
The programme is designed around girls because they are the group structurally under-exposed to this sector — at 11 to 14, when subject choices begin to matter, and again at 15 to 18, when the practical routes in are decided.
The first stage, for ages 11 to 14, is about awareness: workshops, ambassadors and a day inside a working port, at the age girls are forming a sense of what's possible for them. The second, for ages 15 to 18, is about access: work experience, mentoring and apprenticeship support, at the age they can act on it. Models A to C sit in the first stage, D to F in the second.
No. Every model stands on its own and a school can start anywhere. But the stages are designed to connect — the girls who meet the sector at twelve are the ones best placed to take a placement at sixteen.
No. Model A — the in-school workshop series — needs no employer relationship at all. Every other model is where WIP brokers the employer connection, either from our existing partner network or by introducing a new one in your region.
The second stage is built to sit inside whatever careers and work-experience framework applies where you are, rather than assuming one. Many education systems build in workplace-experience expectations at set points in a student's schooling, and each nation and country sets its own. A Discovery Call maps this before anything is scheduled.
Many don't. A significant share of roles across operations, engineering, maintenance and logistics are entered through apprenticeships and technical routes. The second stage covers those routes explicitly, because they're the ones least likely to come up in a careers lesson.
The programme is free for participating schools. Employer partners fund delivery as part of their social impact and talent-pipeline commitments.
Every ambassador and employer partner is vetted before entering a school or hosting pupils, and every session follows WIP’s safeguarding policy, adapted to meet the relevant national requirements wherever it is delivered. Second-stage placements put students inside a working port, so they carry the host employer’s own site induction and supervision requirements on top. Read WIP’s full safeguarding policy.
A structured six-week project with a real employer brief, named mentors for every participating pupil, and a final showcase in front of employer stakeholders — giving pupils a portfolio outcome, not just a memorable day.
Whether you’re a teacher who wants a single workshop, a careers lead looking for placements that mean something, or a port ready to build a pipeline that starts a decade before recruitment does — wherever in the world you are — this starts with one conversation.
No obligation. We’ll help you work out which models fit where you’re starting from, and what it takes to bring the programme to your region.