The aim of this post is not to discourage seafarers or the people involved in shipping industry.
The Shipping Profession, considered as the oldest and worldwide profession is presently no more attractive. Though the shipping industry is growing, enough seafarers are not available to meet the requirements of the industry.
Why youngters are not coming up to take shipping as their profession? Here are some of the reasons:
Professional hazards:
1.Expensive initial training:
Any one who is coming out of a college can not straight way take up shipping as profession. Some shipping related courses have to be completed from the Marine Training Institutes. The course fees demanded by the Training Institutes are very high for a person to choose shipping as a profession. Further, many institutes are not recognised by the government and legal bodies.
2.No career growth:
Career growth for the persons who take up shipping as their profession is very limited. Like in any other profession where one can aspire to become the head of the organisation by competence, here in shipping no such vertical career growth is possible. At the most, one may become the Master or Chief Engineer of a Ship and further vertical growth is limited or not possible.
3.Limited shore jobs:
One can not afford to remain in ship for life time to earn his bread. At some point of life, a seafarer has to take up shore job. But unfortunately, not enough shore jobs are available for a seafarer. At the most he may get some marine based shore jobs in coastal area.
4.Unstable career:
Very few seafarers only can take up shipping as their life time profession. That too without any career growth. At the end of their life, they realise that no significant achievements were made.
5.Less manpower and more work:
Shipping companies, to attract more people in the shipping, tend to pay more salary. This is only an illusion. To pay more the shipping companies reduce the man power in ships. Ultimately the seafarer is made to work more.
6.Not able to cope up with technological developments:
The Navigational equipments and Engine contol systems in the ships are mostly electronic. Due to technological advancements, the seafarer has to update his working knowledge of these equipments. If the seafarer is not able to cope up with these developments, he is bound to fail in his profession.
7.Rough seas and sea sickness cause less productivity:
As the ship is a three axis moving platform, rough seas cause sea sickness that affects the productivity of the seafarer which is unique in ships.
8.Piracy threats and Marine terrorism:
Piracy attacks and Marine terrorism on the ships are increasing globally. Unlike storm warnings, no one can predict these surprise attacks.
9.Natural calamity:
Though storms and rough weather can be predicted, there are increasing instances of ships getting caught in storms and rough weather that result in groundings,collisions and allisions.
10.Multi cultural environment:
The ships are manned by multi cultural crews who have different lifestyles, religions and languages. The seafarer has to adapt himself to live in multicultural environment. Failure to adapt, results in lesser productivity of the seafarer.
11.Frequent validations, training needed:
To sustain in ships, seafarer has to undergo time bound validation courses in recognised institutes which are time consuming and expensive.
12.Unsafe ships:
Ships have definite lifecycle and are not sea worthy beyond that. But shipping companies try their best to extend their life cycle and sail the ships. The ships become unsafe and the seafarer has to face more marine accidents.
13.Increased suicides in ships:
The instances of suicides by the seafarers in ships due to their frustration in work are increasing every year.
Personal hazards:
14.Salary not adequate:
Considering the salary paid in other industries like Information Technology, cost of living and other professional hazards in shipping industry, the salary paid to the seafarers are not adquate.
15.Disturbed family life:
A seafarer is not lucky to remain with his family members throughout his career like his shore based professionals. A seafarer can not be with is family members in cases of emergencies. Further he has to forget about birthdays,Christmas,wedding anniversary and any other social and family events.
16.Health:
Due to work related stress, non availability of fresh food, lack of recreational facilities and inadequate medical facilities in ships, the health of a seafarer deteriorates faster.
17.Loneliness, boredom:
As the seafarer is subjected to “Bigger ships and lesser Manpower” concept of shipping companies, the seafarer till he signs off has to face loneliness and boredom. This also reduces the productivity of the seafarer. To overcome loneliness and boredom, a seafarer slowly becomes an alcoholic.
18.Faster turnarounds, no breaks in harbour:
Due to better cargo unloading facilities available in ports, ships turnaround time has drastically reduced. Practically ships crew don’t get any breaks in harbours to refresh themselves.
19.Communication problems:
Though English is the universal language, as the ships are manned by multicultural crew, communication problems exist between the crew. In addtion communication problems exist between ship and shore authorities. At times, this leads to misunderstandings and cause unwanted incidents.
20.Personal safety:
A seafarer has to lookafter himself and if he is not able to get along with ships crew, his life is not safe.
21.Medical facility:
Similarly a seafarer is expected to remain fit and remain seaworthy. Medical facilities are inadequate in ships.
22.Anyone can not be a Seafarer:
To become a seafarer, a person has to be psychologically fit in addition to medical or physical fitness. To assess the suitability to become a seafarer, psychometric tests are conducted at entry level training of seafarers.
Social hazards:
23.No recognition in society:
A seafarer due to isolation from his family members, gets slowly isolated from the society also and has no recognition in the society.
24.Seen as a high income man but spends more than he earns:
A seafarer is visualised by many in the society as high earning member whereas most of the seafarers spend more than they earn.
25.Not able to mix up in society:
Many seafarers are not able to mix up in a heterogeneous society as they interact with limited people throughout their career. They mix up successfully with other seafarers only.
Legal hazards:
26.Pollution:
If a ship pollutes the sea due to whatsoever reasons, ships crew including the captain of the ship have to face legal actions.
27.Marine accidents:
If a ship gets involved in collision, allision, grounding, fire etc.,the ships crew including the captain of the ship are liable to face legal actions.
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While there is a desperate shortage of qualified and properly certificated seamen and officers worldwide this is mainly because of the people not staying at sea rather than not wanting to go to sea. I have just retired after 23 years as a lecturer in a marine college and over the last 5 years, every year the courses have been full with students from both local (Australia) and overseas. This year my 20 year old grandson commenced his training as an integrated rating, and is one of 15 students who are fully sponsored by different shipping companies.
But having said that I take the point you are making and fundamentally agree with all of the points you have demonstrated. It does seem to me that the industry is now taking notice and recruiting students by offering sponsorship. The problem is of course that it is coming too late. They should have done this ten years ago when the signs were starting to emerge. I recall a BIMCO report in 2000 that predicted a huge shortage by the year 2004. And it actually happened !
And its not just active seagoing seafarers who are in short supply. The marine colleges are suffering from a severe shortage of good, qualified lecturers. Although I am 67 years old and retired 5 months ago I am still being called upon to do casual teaching to avoid classes being delayed or courses cancelled.
Neil Bevis,
Many of us think that going to sea is an adventure and prepare to become a seafarer. After becoming a seafarer by spending a lot of money in training, slowly a seafarer starts facing the hazards I have brought out. Many seafarers continue their profession as no other better options are available to switch over to other professions. However, all the hazards that are faced by a seafarer can be effectively addressed by shipping companies and the government if they have the conviction to find a remedy.
Thanks for your valuable comments.
“15.Disturbed family life:” I’d say this is much higher than 15 for me!
John,
I agree with you. Priorities in life keep changing with time. After marriage, a seafarer starts realizing this disturbed family life more. In fact I switched over to shore job when my children were getting ready to join college. Thanks for your encouraging response.
I liked the post and I agree with most of it, the pay has relatively speaking been sinking for years. In Scandinavia recently there has been a spike in pay because of the shortage of qualified officers, Norwegian companies are poaching officers from all of Scandinavia leaving a shortage that all the training in the world can’t help in time.
The reason of course is the lack of training and employing in the last 20 years, so the short term solutions have become long term problems.
I tend to agree with everything that has been said in all of the comments. Tim is close to the mark. Unfortunately it is the training that is now suffering because of the supply and demand. The world wide marine regulating authorities are allowing sea time and training time to slip as pressure builds to get people onboard the ships. But I agree with the 27 points. Despite everything else they are all valid in every respect.
Tim,
Welcome to MarineBuzz. Earlier only because of higher pay, shipping was attractive. Now shore jobs with attractive pay are available. Definitely shipping companies have to take this seriously and do the needful.
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Well researched article & very well explained the apathy of seafarer. Sad our qualification is not considered on shore jobs.We manage ship & cargo which can be in value of million dollars but when it comes to shore jobs the normal graduate rules the corporate sector who doesn’t have enough knowledge of ship. In future the shipping sector will face more shortage of qualified seafarer for sure.the wages earned by them are peanuts as compared to people in industries ashore.the day will come when people will refuse to join this carrer as there is no growth in this sector.
Capt.Indu Prakash,
Welcome to MarineBuzz. There is a notion that shipping is a highly paid, low risk job.The recent case of MV Rezzak explains how risky it is. As they get old, seafarers find it difficult to get a suitable shore job. Having no other options they continue to remain at sea. I agree with your views.
Thanks for your valuable comments.
This is such a nice article. I am going to save it and show it to all those landlubbers who think that we seafarers have a life full of fun and we earn skyhigh wages.They think we are exploring the world, whereas on ships like tankers and containers we are only exploring the jetties.
Capt Suryaprakash Sharma
Capt Suryaprakash Sharma,
Welcome to MarineBuzz. I fully agree with your views about the plight of seafarers.Thanks for your response.
Very well put and composed post. I liked every point of it. In addition to the points stated above I would like to add one point. That is inhuman treatment on lot of occasions from companies and, in some countries, marine departments also. What is your take on this point?
Umesh,
Welcome to MarineBuzz. I fully agree with your view. The term ‘inhuman treatment’ will be interpreted as ‘human right violation’. I would call it as ‘harassment’ or ‘discrimination’ of seafarers. Thanks for your response.
Well there are some valid points out there. But highlighting all negatives is not the solution. Of course one has to love his/her career. You should try to enjoy whatever you do in life. It may sound a bit philosphical but that is speaking out of experience.
Well there is good money, it is a cahllenging carrer ad you still get to see the world. This is a person speaking after being at sea for 22 years & now in a shore job connected to seafring. Let us al instill some positives in this forum to encourage young & budding deck & engineer officers.
Mohan Anantharaman,
Welcome to MarineBuzz. My intention is not to discourage youngsters. Shipping Industry as a whole has to find out solutions to the issues highlighted in this post. Thanks for your response.
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