Seafarer training is a critical part of the maritime industry, but it is coming under pressure as ship owners keep their focus on costs.


The world’s shipping industry is heading once again for seafarer shortages, poorly trained officers and an increase in major accidents, according to Anglo Eastern Ship Management’s Pradeep Chalwa. He reckons the collective memory of the industry is short, just like the crew and officer shortages that will continue, even with deferring of new buildings and an increase in scrapping.

“Money contributed to education and training has always been meager in our globalised industry when compared to other industries. Any more reduction in training budgets is a blunder that ship owners will pay for with accidents and increased insurance premiums,” he says.

Capt Chalwa, as usual, is right. Ship owners’ attitude to training of seafarers has been poor for years with poaching of staff common. In fact, the prevalence of poaching staff from rivals is one of the reasons for the negative view of training from many shipping companies. Why spend money training officers and crew when the company across the bay will lure them away?

The most important crewing centre in the world is now India, where the training and manning institutions are well regulated to protect seafarers. Unlike in many other countries, a career at sea remains attractive to Indians and the maritime academies are filled with students.

Information technology, which plays a huge role in a ship officer’s life, is firmly established in India and with English the medium of teaching, it is a sought after profession for young Indians with an interest in the sea.

Chalwa believes that India, the Ukraine and former Eastern bloc countries will continue to make in roads into the oil and gas shipping sectors, and the Philippines, Indonesia and China will gain market share in the bulk and container business.

But he warns that even as new seafarers emerge from colleges to begin their lives at sea, they will not be available in numbers sufficient to offset the growing demand for competent crew.


From http://maritimeprofessional.com/Blog...-shortage.aspx