From a students point of view:
Education for a future at sea

	Many stories. Students at the Maritime Academy in Kalmar have many different backgrounds and dreams about the future.

One person has a grandfather who was a sailor, one didn’t know what to do after college, and another was tired of his or hers previous job. What have these people in common? They are all studying at the Maritime Academy in Kalmar. With these different backgrounds, the expectations and reasons for studying vary widely from person to person.

Few professions have as many stories in their baggage as the sailor’s. Even today, people associate sailors with being big, strong men with their arms full of tattoos and with experiences from all over the world.
A more modern impression might be white suits with a lot of gold on the shoulders. Everyone engaged in shipping is aware of how well this matches up to the truth. It is improbable that these impressions would entice the students at the Maritime Academy to go through several years of study. But what is it then? What dreams and expectations do they have regarding the outcome of their studies?

Two different groups
To be able to answer such questions, we have to divide the kind of education the academy offers into two groups. The first one deals with students with no documented experience of working at sea. Their education is composed of alternating theory and practice. This practice is called on-board training and should first give the students the basics of the profession and finally afford opportunities for the students to work together with a person who holds a position in line with the education that they are receiving.
The second group is composed of students who already have documented experience of sailing. Their education is purely theoretical. When asking questions among the two groups, one discovers that the answers are slightly different.
To start with the first group, the students have been enticed to take up this profession because they have heard about high salaries and long vacations. Others want to “see the world”. What they have not thought about is that long vacations in general require long periods of work. Shore stops for only a couple of hours far away from settlements were also a new consideration.
After only one month of studies, it is time for these students to sign on in their first ship, to see what a life at sea really means. About 1/6 of the students stay on board for only a couple of weeks. They realize that this profession is not what they had expected and they quit the education altogether.

	The Maritime Academy in Kalmar as it looks today. This year, a new school opens 20 meters from the quay-side.

Important welcome
The way in which the students are welcomed on board their first ship is of great importance to whether they choose to continue in the sphere of shipping. Many of them I have been talking to have mentioned the instructor as a very important person during the training, especially on the first ship. Most things on board seem obvious to a person who has spent a great deal of his life at sea. It can be difficult to acquaint oneself with a student’s situation. A student who has learned recently that green lights are located on the starboard side.
Some students have been working ashore for several years before they come to the academy. They reflect on the firm routines and the hierarchy on board which does not exist in the same way ashore. To commit a huge mistake only by sitting on “the wrong chair” in the mess room was something new. But they also see the positive side of this. Everything flows very well and everybody knows his or her own tasks on board.
For some of the students, this was going to be their first time using English as a working language. One was worrying about whether English from high school and college could be enough. When on board, this turned out to be the least of their problems. Even expressions and terms which were difficult to understand in school felt natural to use only after a couple of weeks.
The first training period of four months turns out to be a longer time to be away from family, friends and girl/boyfriends than what many have expected. To feel thankful to the inventor of the cell phone, or to become really happy only by reading a two week-old Swedish newspaper when they have been away from home for a while is a new experience for many of the students.
I myself have now been studying for two and a half years out of four on the Master Mariner Programme. The students in my class have all finished their second on-board training period. Many of them find a big difference between the first and the second training. Of course, the type of ship affects their life on board.
The Swedish Shipowners’ Association, which supplies the ships for on-board training, tries as far as possible to make sure a student gets the opportunity to be on board as many different types of ship as reasonably possible. The association also tries to take the personal desires of students into consideration. But this is a difficult task because of the growing number of students in relation to the trainee posts available.

From theory to practice
Between the first and the second training period, my class was studying at the academy for two semesters. It was really exciting to sign on again after one year in school – to see what we really had learned. One quickly discovers that there is big difference between theory and practice, not to mention how many theories there are about one single subject, depending on who is asked!
The anxiety about signing on and how life would be on board was gone this second period. Now everybody was full of expectations and thought it was going to be fun. Had we really learned something? Of course we had, and much more than we had thought!
Now the class is assembled at the academy again for two more semesters of study. Despite the fact that there is a difference of almost twenty years between the youngest and the oldest student and that we have such different backgrounds, we are brought together because of our common goal – the Master’s Examination.

Students’ dreams vary
Most of the students are satisfied with the plan of the education, where theory and practice alternate. The opportunity of sailing on different types of ships makes it possible to find out what would be an interesting place of work in the future and what cannot. Despite the fact that there are one and a half years of education remaining, some of my classmates are already confirmed tanker officers while others are shaking their heads. Many are talking about the chance of living abroad for a couple of years. Others want to be close to their families, and are going to apply for jobs on vessels trading Sweden and the neighbouring countries.
To work ashore, for example in some company office, seems to be something that would be most enticing after a couple of years at sea. The same is true of continued studies such as law or economics, which can be a good complement to the Master’s Examination.
So, what do the students think of their future as an officer?
Being away from home for longer periods is not a positive thing, but does not feel like the biggest problem. Conflicts on board are more worrying. To have studied for four years at the academy and after that to sign on a vessel as an officer and give orders to people with seafaring experience longer than one’s own age can create difficult situations. But it is important to be a straight and respectful person. It is also important to be able to complement each other on board instead of entering into competition. Of course, everyone wants to get the crew’s support by concentrating on their assignments.
Some students are a little worried about the tasks of an officer, and some are not. This depends on which way the shipboard training has been managed. Many students have had the chance to take on a lot of responsibility, and they have been well versed in an officer’s work and how to carry it out well. These students have a priceless foundation for the future compared to students who were only allowed to work on deck during the training period.
Most of the students are satisfied with the theoretical education at the academy. Some thought it was going to be more difficult. Those who have been studying at other universities before this have seen a big difference. Here we take part in the lessons in an active way and have a dialogue with the teachers. In other types of education, hundreds of students are assembled in big lecture halls where there is only one-way communication between the teacher and the listeners. The way of studying at the Maritime Academy is quite similar to college. The biggest difference is the so-called “examination weeks”. All the examinations we are supposed to pass in one semester are gathered into two weeks. Many students are critical of this and want the examinations to be spread out over the whole semester.
Now we can change over to the other group of students, those who already have experience of sailing. I have talked to a couple of last-year students who will receive their Master’s degrees in May this year. Do their dreams look any different? They have now been studying for almost three years. Many of them have chosen to work on a ship during the summer holidays. This is partly a good source of income, and partly a chance to test what one has learned at the academy.
There are mainly two reasons why the students have chosen to leave their work as an AB and start to study. Either it is the future insecurity for a Swedish AB when flag states are changed and contracts are revised, or it is that the profession as an officer looks interesting and climbing higher on the ladder seems as a natural development. There are better chances of employment as an officer. To start studying meant a big change for most of the students. Before, they had quite a good income, but now several of them have had to take loans. Many hadn’t been visiting a school building since high school or college. Just like everything else, studying is a technique. Before this technique had been fully explored and the first examinations had been passed, there was more than one who was questioning what he had chosen to embark upon.

Many were surprised
Despite the fact that they had spent several years at sea and thought they knew what an officer was doing up there on the bridge, many were surprised that there were so many different subjects to study. During the course, the students have more than once found reasons as to why things are carried out in a certain way on board, which they had not thought about before. None of those asked regret that they left their job on board for three years of study. But they wouldn’t do it again! Just as with the first group of students, they want to work as an officer a couple of years after the examination. But in contrast to the first group, most of these students have not had the opportunity to try the profession. Some of them feel a little bit worried that they might have forgotten important parts during the course of education, but they are not afraid of failure to succeed with the profession.
What both groups of students have in common is that they are concerned about shipping as a working place in the future. Reports that thousands of officers are needed all over the world reach us at the same time as we hear about ex-students who are unemployed. How this can be possible is a mystery. However, there is not much we can do about it at the moment.
The students at the Maritime Academy in Kalmar go on and aim high!

//Sara Båth
Master mariner student

Building a new school for a new century

	The new 6,000 sq m building is designed for a maximum of 800 students.

In Kalmar, maritime education dates back to 1842. This year, 160 years later, a new school situated some 20 metres from the quay-side will open its doors to future maritime officers.

Almost 8,000 students at the Kalmar University have transformed the historical city in south-eastern Sweden to a busy educational centre. At the end of the year, the Univerity’s Maritime Academy will move from its current premises to a new four-storey building in the city centre’s port area. The 6,000 m2 building has been designed for a maximum of 800 students and a staff of 60. Most of the lecture rooms and classrooms will be situated on the first floor. This includes three lecture theatres, the largest of which has capacity for 160 students. The first floor also contains laboratories and student areas, including a cafeteria.
The second floor is dominated by simulators, computer rooms and laboratories. The staff areas will be placed on the third floor together with a library, conference rooms, more simulators and communication equipment. The main part of the fourth floor is designed for the ventilation system equipment. The crowning glory of the building is the tower, where students will be trained in nautical instruments.

Impressive resources
The Academy’s simulator resources are impressive. In addition to a full mission engine-room simulator, there are fourteen graphic workstation simulators for individual training. At present, there are two navigation simulators with five own ships each. One is equipped with visual presentation for all five own ships. After having been moved to the new premises, one own-ship will be upgraded with a 360 degree visual presentation. In addition, there is a third, PC-based navigation simulator. The five-workstation GMDSS simulator will be expanded to eight workstations, and a new simulator for cargo handling and stability with fifteen workstations will be installed.
The 366 gt training vessel Calmare Nyckel is at present at a shipyard for an extensive upgrading. When re-delivered to the academy in May, the vessel will be equipped with engineering and maintenance laboratories and a ten-workstation navigation centre equipped with radar and ECDIS. The accommodation consists of a lecture room, galley, mess-room and cabins with berths for crew, instructors and sixteen students.

//Rolf Petrén Nilsson

Back to SSG 2, 8 February