The Hindu Business Line : Shipping Ministry to sharpen focus on maritime training

THE Ministry of Shipping plans to invest about Rs 2,000 crore during the next 10 years in the maritime training sector in the light of the emerging challenges in the shipping industry.

In fact, the Directorate General of Shipping has already initiated measures to encourage training institutes to get independent benchmarking done by any of the three top-rated agencies in the country. Further, the DGS has introduced elaborate guidelines, self-assessment schemes and principles of benchmarking, apart from deploying a number of advanced simulators for training.

Government initiatives in this regard include minimum entry level standard for all pre-sea training, all pre-sea training made residential, the duration of training enhanced to give scope for e-learning and soft skills.

Recent surveys have shown that India could face a shortage of 46,000 officers by 2010. At present, India ranks fifth in terms of maritime manpower supply in the world, with more than two-third of the seafarers working on foreign flag vessels. While the Philippines is the world's largest seafarer supply nation, accounting for 28.1 per cent of the available pool of seafarers in the world with a per capita income of $1,040, India supplies 5 per cent of the seafarers with a per capita income of $480.

India's distinction is that it has the world's youngest seafarers community in the offers category, with the average age being 35 years.

Industry experts feel that Indian ship owners should increase their investment in training.

"Typically, ship owners spend 0.5 per cent of their operating cost on training, while the figure should be at least two to three per cent," an expert points out.

One disturbing trend appears to be that although India has about 26,000 officers, at any given time, the number of officers actually on board is less than 50 per cent. "This substantially brings down the total number of ships that can be manned at any given time by Indian officers. The reasons for this include the average time taken by officers to obtain their certificate of competency is higher than other maritime nations," according to a shipping expert.

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