Shipping industry faces severe labour shortage over next decade

Marine Institute graduates look forward to plenty of opportunities in offshore oil and gas business

Source: DCNONL
ST. JOHN’S, N.L.

Ahoy there, matey! Want to earn more than $100,000 for six months’ work each year as an officer aboard oil tankers, supply ships and cargo vessels — at home or abroad?

It can be done, but there's just one catch for those who want to go to sea... you’ve also got to spend three years in school and a little time working your way up the merchant marine ladder.

By 2015, a worldwide shortage of ships’ officers is forecast to reach 27,000 as aging baby boomers retire and fewer young people enter the industry.

BIMCO, an international shipping association that represents almost two-thirds of the world’s merchant fleet, says the need will be great.

It’s a familiar refrain, as nearly every occupation faces the same dilemma in the near future — plenty of jobs and too few young people to fill them.

The Marine Institute typically graduates about 108 students from two ships’ officer training programs called nautical science and marine engineering.

“That’s not enough,” said Catherine Dutton, head of MI’s school of marine studies. And the number of students entering the programs is declining.

High school students, mostly from rural parts of the province, continue to sign up, but fewer older students are enrolling.

Dutton figures the lure of Alberta jobs has attracted older, would-be students who might otherwise consider a career at sea.

She is part of a new national advisory committee looking at ways to attract people to careers in the merchant marine.

Dutton says the shortage may soon be felt in the province’s offshore industry as the White Rose oilfield expands and the Hebron project gets off the ground.

“The next oilfield that comes on means there’s more oil tankers and, therefore, more ships’ crews are going to be needed.”

In 2003, there were 5,341 merchant marine officers from Eastern Canada working in the marine industry all over the world.

Of those, more than 1,300 were from Newfoundland and Labrador — which ranks second only to British Columbia in the number of ships’ officers holding nautical and engineering certificates.

Capt. Sheldon Anstey. a 33-year-old Twillingate native, earned his master mariner ticket four years ago and, until recently, skippered a supply ship working in the Newfoundland oilpatch.

His next job is captain of a deep-sea, multi-purpose tug working on a construction project off the coast of Dubai in the United Arab Emirates.

Anstey graduated from high school in 1992, and if not for the cod moratorium he probably would have followed his family into the fishery.

Instead, he completed MI’s nautical science program in 1996.

“I had a job waiting for me as soon as I graduated.” Since then, he has lived in Newfoundland and worked all over the world — the Gulf of Mexico, off the coast of Africa, in the North Sea, and the Caribbean — mostly on offshore supply ships and tugboats.

Several years later, his brother graduated from the same program and is a second mate aboard another offshore Newfoundland supply ship.

Anstey recommends mariner programs to anyone who is interested — but the father of three children, ages four and under, also offers some advice.

“Think about where you want to be. Don’t think about it as an 18-year-old; think about it as a 30-year-old with a family”.

“The time is going to come when you’re going through the airport and you’ve got a four-year-old tugging on your pant leg saying, ‘Don’t go.’ ”

For those who decide to go to sea, Anstey says there’s no shortage of jobs.

“If you’re willing to go anywhere, you can get a job pretty quick.” Working in the offshore oil and gas industry offers the best schedules and pay.

“Working in the offshore provides you more time home than anywhere else ‘cause there’s not many vessels out there that work equal time on and off,” said Anstey.

On local ships, the schedule is usually 28 days on, 28 days off. For others, such as his new ship off Dubai, it’s six weeks on, six weeks off.

Anstey is working on a bachelor of maritime studies, a degree that will help in a future, shore-based career that keeps him in the marine industry.

Because he completed the nautical science program, he could do the degree full-time in three semesters, but he’s taking more time and doing it via distance education.

“I’m not in a rush to get the degree, but it’s something I’m working on over the next couple of years,” said Anstey. “That’s basically my first step towards coming ashore.”

MI says every graduate from its nautical sciences and marine engineering programs finds a job.

Canadian Press