Book Description

This Book is of the seafarers, by the seafarers, for the seafarers Seafarers are the core of all maritime trade and their expectations/perspectives alone should be at the centre of all solutions for maritime skills. Taking this standpoint, the editor has explored the issues of maritime skills with critical gaps following a framework of research methodology. The issue of critical gaps in maritime skills is further exacerbated due to the impact on seafarers caused by changes in – the ecosystem, status & relationship with stakeholders, technology, focus on renewable energy, anxiety levels and so forth. Furthermore, stakeholders can no longer ignore the fact that seafarers are leaving a seagoing career after working for only a few years. Therefore, the editor has also explored the need to prepare seafarers for transition into maritime shore jobs to preserve their maritime skills within the maritime industry. This exhaustive book can be used as a guide for further revisions or a revamp of the current STCW Convention. The editor thereafter divided the researched critical gaps in maritime skills into four groups (Jain’s Model for Maritime Skills) – Panoptic, Social Intelligence, Upskilling & Reskilling for onboard vessels skills, and Portable Skills for future shore jobs. Panoptic and Social Skills are core skills required for both on board vessels as well for maritime shore jobs. Thereafter, the editor embarked on a voyage to discover, persuade, collaborate with a number of exceptionally experienced subject-matter experts over many months to collaboratively pursue many mini-research projects across all selected maritime skills, adopting specific methodology to plug these critical gaps. These experts were drawn – (1) from countries such as India, the Philippines, Romania, South Korea, Malaysia, UAE, the UK and Singapore, (2) from both genders, (3) from deck, engine & professionals settled ashore, (4) with current experience in the industry and/or at sea at a fundamental level, and (5) from seafaring-supplying nations, recognising/experiencing the relevant socio-economic circumstances of seafarers. From this book, seafarers will not only find ideas on how to plug gaps in their maritime skills, but also how they can transition with their existing skills to other maritime jobs, such as marine superintendents, marine managers, designated persons ashore, managers supervising new build/second-hand vessels, IT managers in the maritime domain, marine surveyors, marine experts/investigators, marine pilots in ports, maritime arbitrators, managers in shipyards and so forth. The solutions in this book will also resolve the issue of the shortage and retention of seafarers.