The EU seafarer – a dying breed?

	During the last two decades, both the number of ships registered in EU member states and the number of EU seafarers have declined.

During the last two decades, both the number of ships registered in EU member states and the number of EU seafarers, have declined dramatically and this has become a major worry for the EU Commission and the EU Parliament.

A Commission communication with a number of proposals on training and recruitment of seafarers has recently been adopted by the Parliament.
The report from the Parliament highlights the importance of seafarers and seafaring experience to the Union. The aim of the resolution is to change the declining trend and to make a seafarer career attractive to the EU Youth. According to the Parliament, the shortfall of well-trained seafarers is likely to have negative consequences for safe navigation, number of accidents and marine pollution.
It is also a concern of the EU shipping industry as a whole, since a number of land-based jobs where seafaring experience is required.
There are a number of reasons behind the shortfall, cost competitiveness being the major one. The member states are therefore encouraged by the Parliament to reduce fiscal and other costs and burdens that place EU seafarers at a disadvantage.
There are other areas where improvement is needed if seafaring once again will be a natural choice for young Europeans such as work environment and the national maritime educational programs. To make the latter more attractive, the Parliament suggests that the shipping industry, the maritime education and training institutes and the social partners develops career paths for officers also ashore.

New career ashore
After having spent a part of their working life at sea, it’s common, and natural, for officers to start a new career ashore. If the number of young Europeans gaining an officer license continues to decline, the consequence will be serious for many shipping and shipping related activities ashore. Consequently, the European Union runs the risk of losing shipping knowledge and experience and its shipping tradition. This is the scenario that the Parliament and the Commission wants to prevent from happening. One way to create new career paths is to define shipping in a broader sense.
If maritime educational programs become more of a natural gateway to the transport sector as a whole, an officer education would be more attractive to young people. In a shorter perspective and to meet an almost acute shortage of officers, the Parliament suggest that seafarers working as ratings where there today is a surplus, should be retrained as officers.
The importance of harmonisation of the member states’ maritime education and training programs is stressed by the EU institutions. A more uniform education within the Union has several advantages.
An acute shortage of officers in one part of EU could more easily be compensated if there is a surplus in another part. An national education program and a certificate of competency that is easy for the administration in another country to identify, will make increase the possibilities for officers to join other nations’ merchant fleets. This in addition to a broader education would mean a significantly larger labour market for maritime officers.

Harmonise contents
METNET is an EU project led by the World Maritime University, WMU, in Malmö, Sweden. MET is an abbreviation for Maritime Education and Training and NET is short for network. The overall goal for the project is to harmonise contents and scope in the officer education.
The aim is to increase the competitiveness of the individual seafarer, to increase the number of job opportunities, to increase maritime safety within EU and to contribute to environmental protection.
At a conference in Dublin 1996 the question weather the European seafarer is a dying breed was raised. According to the Transport Commissioner at that time, Neil Kinnock, the answer had to be yes if the negative recruitment trend couldn’t be changed. This is also the aim for METNET.
The project shall support the development of networks between MET institutions in and outside EU. The thought is that deeper co-operation will make it possible to plan and to use large investment equipment such as full mission simulators in a more cost effective way.
In a network were the participating institutions gives courses with harmonised course curricula, a student and teacher exchange would be facilitated. However, this would require courses to be given in English.
METNET is divided into several work packages, WPs, each handling a specific topic. In WP 2 for instance, national studies are being made to determine what actions have been taken to improve recruitment and the extent of “drop-outs”. Experience from one country is to be shared by the others.
In WP 7, teaching aids in English is developed for countries where English isn’t the native language. Initially, aids are produced for courses in environmental protection, port management and shipping economy. WP 8 is developing support measures for teachers at the MET institutes.
The typical teacher has an officer education and seafaring experience but lacks pedagogical education. For senior lecturer’s the time span since his or hers last voyage at sea is often long. The support consists of aids covering, for instance, presentation techniques and planning of simulator exercises.
It is also the intention of WP 8 to develop means for teachers to keep up to date with the development in
the industry, ashore and at sea.
WMU is recognised as an organisation with vast experience and knowledge as a leader of international projects. The problem seen ahead in the METNET project is, however, how the implementation will be handled in the participating countries. The view on maritime education and training and course contents vary between nations, sometimes significantly and there seems to be a dividing line between North and South in the Union.

Exploit funding possibilities
To finance METNET as well as other projects and suggestions for improvement, The EU Commission and Parliament wants all member states and social partners to fully exploit funding possibilities through existing community instruments, for instance the Socrates and Leonardo da Vinci programmes. At the same time, they point out that all parties within the industry have a responsibility for improvement and development of the MET sector.
To sum up, the main solution for a trend change, is to develop an attractive education. Apparently, the Commission and the Parliament means that the days when young Europeans went to sea in their early teens and stayed there for the rest of their working life is over. In the development of the MET programs, the officer professions must be seen as “transit professions” where the career continues ashore.
The education programs must be harmonised to facilitate a free flow of manpower, students, teachers and educational resources over the borders within the EU.

//Rolf Petrén Nilsson

 

Back to SSG 2, 8 February