Keeping shipping afloat

Source: Recruiter

The shipping industry needs to up its game if is to attract people with the skills it needs.

That was one of the key messages from a seminar on addressing the global shortage of seafarers, held at the headquarters of the International Maritime Organisation in London (IMO) earlier this month

Efthimios Mitropoulos, secretary general of the IMO, said that the perception of poor treatment of staff, dangerous work - for example, piracy - and a polluting industry was contributing to an expected shortfall in crew needed of 6% by 2015. This included a shortage of 27,000 officers.

Captain Pradeep Chawla, a director of international ship and crew management company Anglo-Eastern Group, said that while the expected shortfall in numbers was an issue, “the bigger problem was a shortage of qualified and motivated staff”.

Capt Chawla said as seafarers’ jobs had become more complex, the skills and knowledge needed by seafarers was far higher than in the past. “There is a huge gap between what employers want to pay a seafarer and what they are expected to do.”

Capt Chawla suggested the industry do the following:

-continuous recruitment of trainees (with the aim of having two per ship)
-long-term commitment to recruiting from the same locations worldwide
-commitment to health & safety and labour practices above the minimum legal requirements
-onshore employment opportunities available after time spent working at sea.

Chawla added that in the internet age employers had to raise their game if they wanted to attract staff. “The word on the net is more powerful than any company brochure,” he said.