During the UK Chamber of Shipping’s Summit, held September 20th 2016, Nigel Lehmann-Taylor Head of UK Shipping at Maersk, described the importance of UK training for seafarers and highlighted the rigorous process potential cadets have to go through to obtain a career at sea.
Training seafarers is critical to making sure the most highly skilled are those seafarers which are out at sea. However, not only is there a large ratio of applicants to places, but the cost of training in the UK is at an all-time high. According to Mr Lehmann-Taylor, the UK is the 2nd most expensive place to train cadets, behind Australia. Not only does this mean that funding is vital but also that there is a need to ensure the UK’s place as a successful maritime training academy remains and therefore placing it as a priority within the wider industry is crucial.
Furthermore, Mr Lehmann-Taylor illustrated the overwhelming competition potential seafarers face, stating that Maersk has 34 cadets starting training at UK colleges, selected from 936 applications this year. And to demonstrate this further, the company has already received 512 applications for September 2017.
Despite this tough competition, Maersk feels it is important to nurture careers. Those who they recruit now need to have a very good chance of completing the course to take up a life at sea, meaning that the selection progress is even more rigorous than ever before. Training costs need to be reduced, but they are likely to rise.
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