It is mandatory for an entry
level Indian seafarer who passes out from a recognized pre-sea maritime
training institute to undergo an apprenticeship or on-the-job training aboard a
cargo ship as a trainee. A trainee or an engine cadet who intends to serve merchant
navy as a marine engineer needs to undergo an apprenticeship for at least 6
months compulsorily.
Vineet Gupta, managing director
of Anglo Eastern Ship Management India, the Indian subsidiary of Hong-Kong
headquartered Anglo Eastern Group – one of the largest employers of Indian
seafarers said apprenticeship is a shipboard training programme which is a
planned and structured to assist a prospective seafarer candidate to achieve
the standard of competence under ‘International Convention on Standards of Training,
Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers’ benchmark set by International
Maritime Organization.
Unfortunately, the maritime
recruitment firms operating in India want only trained and experienced
seafarers, and only very few companies invest in trainees or entry level
seafarers, he said.
The annual demand for such ‘on
board training berths’ for Indian seafarers is almost double considering the
huge churn out of trainees or pass outs of deck and engine cadets from various
maritime training institutes operating in the country. It is estimated that
about 5,000-5,500, entry level Indian seafarers get placed as trainees every
year aboard Indian and foreign flag vessels, he said.
The Indian maritime industry,
according to him, is grappling with the demand supply disparity of on board
training berths for seafarers. He urged the Government to act and control this
mismatch by finding avenues to create more training berths on-board ships
He went on to add that
Anglo-Eastern Group’s India-based Anglo Eastern Maritime Academy guarantees
placement to all pass outs on ‘on board training berths’. The academy places
over 750 deck and engine cadets of Indian nationality as trainees on cargo
vessels every year and assure jobs to them subject to performance results, he
added.
Sources in the maritime
fraternity agree that most shipping companies are reluctant to take the effort
to train officers and prefer to recruit already trained and certified officers.
It is only bigger companies that provide training slots on their ships for the
trainees to complete their training.
After undergoing pre-season
training, the trainees have to do a period on board ships to complete their
training (apprenticeship) and quality for the competency examinations. It
requires the Director General of Shipping to make it mandatory for all
companies that recruit Indian officers to provide these training slots, the
sources said.