NU6 by HJA - New Seafarers Positions

NU 6 - NEW WORK 

                    

The shipping industry depends on an adequate supply of highly skilled, motivated and professional seafarers, particularly officers, to operate ships safely and efficiently. Unfortunately, it has been clear for some years that a shortage of qualified officers was emerging, and several commentators, including the periodic manpower surveys, have not only confirmed this but have forecast that the shortage would increase over time.

Just imagine the world without shipping and seafarers. Furthermore, consider these:

1) Over 90 percent of goods transported worldwide are on board vessels of any kind and the demand continues to increase every year.

2) There is a current shortage of 50,000 qualified seafarers worldwide and the number is also expected to double by 2015.

3) Of the estimated 1.3 million seafarers in the world, Filipinos account for more than 350,000.

4) Recruitment companies are engaged in cut-throat competition just to get the most qualified officers required by their respective ship-owners.

Looking at the above statements, one can easily infer that there is surely a big gap to fill in the global shortage of qualified seafarers and Filipinos would definitely play an important part in solving these problems.

One very interesting development happening in the local scene is the creation of a new school curriculum to develop officers who could be both a ship captain and a chief engineer at the same time. This would mean that instead of having two officers to oversee the deck and engine departments, we could put just one officer with dual position.

The officers in the Deck Department are normally responsible for navigating the ship, watch keeping on the navigational bridge when sailing and on deck when in port, mooring operations when entering / leaving port, maintenance of fire fighting equipment and life saving appliances etc. The officers in the Engine Department (Engineers) are responsible for daily watch keeping over and maintenance of the ships propulsion machinery, power generators and various other machinery and equipment.

Conventional wisdom dictates that dual position on board a running ship is just too risky but I say, everything is possible. We have seen a lot of developments happening recently which we first thought as next to impossible. I am not saying that this is going to be easy but I honestly think that this is doable. If we could provide each Filipino seafarer the competencies required to function both as deck and engine officer through this program then we could again help the shipping industry in addressing the shortage of officers. This would also mean significant savings for the ship-owners who have to pay their captains and chief engineers generously in order to keep them in their fleet. This would also streamline the processes on board since there would only be one person overseeing the operations of the vessel.

The main advantage of the system is greater flexibility of the onboard officers. Onboard operations also benefit greatly from officers working in the deck department being familiar with the technical operation of the ship, and officers in the engine department being familiar with the operational side.