MARITIME INDUSTRY: Stakeholders urged to unite to solve manpower shortage

As shipowners worldwide builds new vessels every year to sustain the increasing demand for sea-based freight and passenger transport, demand for seafarers swells and to address the shortage, a shipping executive said there is a need to unify efforts of maritime stakeholders.

“Shipping companies are still looking at the Philippines as the best seafarers worldwide so we are launching a massive campaign to invite high school students all over the country to go into maritime education because of its bright prospect,” said Atty. John Orola, the Chairman of Orophil Shipping International Co. Ltd. and VMA Global College in an interview.

Orophil Shipping is a manning company that is currently manning a growing number of Cape Size, Bulk Carriers, Log, General Cargo, Car, Container, Reefer and Tanker Ships.

They provide competent qualified Filipino seafarers, properly certificated in accordance with STCW '95 requirements as per quality policy and commitments to valued principals worldwide. They also produce their own breed of maritime graduates educated by VMA Global College formerly known as the Visayan Maritime Academy.

Geared as the manning capital of the world, the country is known to supply most on-board seafarers for the global industry.

However Orola said that the shortage, which has become a global predicament already, needs to be addressed first.

But as for the Philippines, efforts for this has always been a private sector initiative and the government is only giving assistance through encouraging stakeholders to improve their system of hiring and providing seafarer with more benefits,  said Orola.

He said that reason for the shortage can be accounted for the misconception of the maritime profession.

“Most parents would believe that maritime education is only for average mentality so most would rather prefer to go into nursing but they do not know that now maritime careers are more competitive and very much in demand worldwide but it requires more technical skills and very good experiences as well as academic performance,” he stressed.

Also the chairman of a VMA Global College, Orola said that to address the demand they are offering bridging program for Mechanical Engineers to shift to the Marine Engineering profession. Currently they have already had five batches in the program.

“We are still working hard in campaigning in joint efforts with DOLE, OWWA, and other maritime shipping agencies to inform students and LGU how attractive the maritime profession is,” he added.

As for the quality of seafarers that our academic institutions in the country provide, Orola agreed that there is indeed a declining quality.

And in order to address this problem, he said that they have been requesting the support of all stakeholders in the industry especially manning and shipping companies to provide some academic institutions with high-tech laboratories and equipments in order to teach students to be globally competitive and knowledgeable with the use of these new equipments.

“The shortage is no longer just a national problem but a problem of the global maritime industry so there is a need to unify our forces to address these problems,” he added.