Investment in cadet training needed now
Posted on | March 21, 2010 | 1 Comment
Roberto Giorgi, president of V.Ships, who is also president of Intermanager, in a recent interview with Lloyd’s List , has called for a compulsory requirement for facilities on newbuildings, for cadets.
As he put it, “We need to make sure young people look at the industry with different eyes…criminalisation and piracy may be much more tangible issues, but this goes to the heart of what we are trying to offer them in terms of training, and a career in shipping.”
In his March 11 interview, Mr. Giorgi harkened back to “the early 1980s, when vessels were built with officers’ wardrooms, gyms, and pools. But that era ended. By the turn of the millennium, we were having to place cadets in ones and twos. It is still the case today.”
He notes that in a company that has 1,244 cadets, almost 500 of whom are doing sea training at any one time, most are now serving singly on ships that his company has under full management — about half of its 1,000-ship roster.
Mr. Giorgi has called for compulsory facilities onboard for cadets, “through mandatory regulation, not just stronger guidelines.”
He has stated that as president of Intermanager, the global vessel managers’ organisation, he intends to press for new rules on ship design with the other major industry associations.
Peter Cremers, the CEO of Hong Kong-based Anglo-Eastern Group, who has long been a crusader for higher standards of quality, made a statement on February 2 that his company would manage a training ship free of charge, and that it would urge its stakeholders and other shipowners to provide more places for cadets aboard their vessels.
In point of fact, cadet programmes have proven to be very productive of “lifetime” career seafarers. Mr. Giorgi’s interview with John McLaughlin of Lloyd’s List explains why: as Keith Parsons, who is now V.Group’s director of human resources, points out, “through the 1970s and the early 1980s, a lot of shipping companies operated similar schemes.
From a training point of view, sessions in the onboard classroom would be followed by practical sessions during ship operations: an explanation of a cargo discharging plan made real by a period understudying an officer on cargo watch, or a navigation class followed by a first sight on the bridge.”
In my opinion, the views of Messrs. Giorgi and Cremers are persuasive. The 1969 Tonnage Convention should be amended to exclude cadet accommodations from overall GRT calculations. Other incentives favouring the onboard training of cadets should also be considered, and adopted with all deliberate speed.
It would also be helpful to hear from our venerable shipping organisations, other than Intermanager, on what constructive proposals they wish to make to further the training of the next generation of seafarers. If they do not wish to make such proposals, it would be interesting to hear from their leaders why Mr. Giorgi, Mr. Cremers and I (and a host of others) are mistaken.
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April 14th, 2010 @ 5:37 pm
A great idea ! Not sure how and through which instrument it would be mandated however…yards would not be happy (modification of existing standard designs etc unless they remove/re-designate other officer/crew cabins) = rise in new build costs if they have to enlarge the accommodation $$$ = direct costs passed on to owner.
Interesting…..