The Seminar had important speakers deliver speeches over 3 sessions spread over the entire day. It began just before 10 O’clock and went well past the scheduled closing time of 17:30. This report is a gist of what was spoken over the entire day culled over from notes taken during the sessions.
A. Inaugural Session : DELIVERING SEAFARING AS A PROFESSION OF CHOICE
Speakers
• Shri K Babu, Hon’ble Minister of Fisheries, Ports & Excise, Govt. of Kerala
• Shri K Mohandas, (IAS Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, Govt. of India
• Vice-Admiral Pradeep Chauhan AVSM, VSM, Commandant, Indian Naval Academy
• Jb. Abdulgani Y Serang, General Secretary, NUSI
• Prof G Raghuram, Professor IIM Ahmedabad & Former Vice-Chancellor, IMU
The Honourable Ministers’ inaugural speech spoke of logistic sector being a key driver of growth and the coastal shipping being an emergent sector. He spoke of why it was important to move goods over waterways. He said the government was targeting 40% of trade to be carried over waterways by 2020. However there was no light thrown on how this was going to be done. He would have been more comfortable speaking in Malayalam.
Shri K Mohandas gave a very well informed presentation which he began by remembering Shri C P Srivastava, Former IMO Secretary General.
The highlight of the day was the very effective and erudite presentation by Vice-Admiral Pradeep Chauhan AVSM, VSM, Commandant, Indian Naval Academy. With his command over the language and effective style of delivery he made a case for language and humanities in the syllabus. He urged everyone to revisit the basics.
He said that the quality of officer was a problem not just in the Merchant navy or navy but across all sectors. He felt it was fundamentally wrong to avoid humanities and focus on science. He said we have “de-romanticised”the merchant navy ( and navy)and so we (institutes) produce mechanics.
He believes that for developing concepts we need a strong base in Humanities , history and language. For translating such concepts to reality we need the sciences.
He felt it imperative to define what the institute was producing. He talked of his dilemma where the INA he heads produces BTechs who are officers or Officers who are BTechs. He felt the need to clearly define in words the end product desired.
He defined an Officer as “An intellectually, physically, emotionally and behaviourally exemplary, courageous and inspirational leader, imbued with a fine sense of pride, honour and integrity, possessing strong articulation and clear and evident expertise and refinement in multiple domains and deeply committed to the service of his country and the wellbeing of his subordinates”.
He felt training institutes must handle the Role of language in their curriculum. That language is a means of communication, according to him is a myth. Language is an expression of thought, he says. He lamented the fact that Lexicons don’t exist. We don’t use nouns anymore. He illustrated this with an example where an officer gets what he wants without using any nouns - “अरे तुम, नही तुम। हा तुम.वो देना। वो नही ,वो. हा वो”
Romanticism is extinct, he feels, because trainers lack knowledge of language.
He defined Ethic as “ what I do institutionally aligns with what I do individually” If in an organization there is difference between what they purport to do and what they do, that organization breeds unethical people. People are nowadays concerned only about how to man their ships and not in what manner they man
Jb. Abdulgani Serang began his speech by recollecting his collection with Kerala. His great grandfather who founded the NUSI was from Kerala , he said.
He reminded all the speaker not to talk just of seamen because there are many women seafarers who were joining the merchant navy.
He said merchant navy is a profession of passion and was for the bravehearts. He felt people were not aware of merchant navy as a profession as it was not publicized enough. Seafaring for most is not the first choice profession. Whatever little news is there of the merchant navy is negative- piracy, oil pollution etc., He recalled the sacrifices of Indian Merchant men in the World Wars I and II.
He quoted Mr. DT Joseph who said India Lacked a Maritime Constituency and Mr,. Mitropoluous who said that Half the world would starve and the other half would freeze if ships were to stop.
He compared India with Philippines where the president makes it a point to recognize shipping companies. The president in person presents the awards to the best ship recruitment company. There are large hoardings in Philippines that talk of merchant navy.
He was sure everyone would agree that seamen from Lakshadweep were the best. He felt that was because they lived to become a seafarer. They couldn’t progress because they didn’t know English. He talked of how there are many skilled fitters and pumpmen who don’t get an Indian CDC because they don’t know English. They end up getting Seaman book from another country and are gainfully employed. He felt there was something wrong with the system.
Prof G Raghuram delivered the theme address. He felt Seafaring has to become a career of choice.
1. The current state of the economy did not give many opportunities for employement.
2. He asked if Indians were outpricing themselves.
3. He also thought there was not enough publicity and awareness of Merchant navy as a career. Times where when joining Dufferin and DMET was like joining a public school and the products were of a different standards.
4. The course content has to be made contemporary and has to include good humanities. He lamented that we are very technical and wanted to rekindle the romance of the profession.
5. He questioned if we were looking at producing cadets who should hit the deck running or do we want officers who will develop out of the box thinking.
6. He felt we need to choose the right people. Most people he felt stumbled into this career. Entrance standards and requirements must be revisited.
7. He felt institutes should be rated by an independent agency like the IIMs are.
8. He wanted institutes to form an Association so that they can set standards and self-regulate.
9. He wanted the industry to promote continuous research.
B. SessionI : Policy, curriculum and training framework for a well developed MET system Moderator : Capt S Bhardwaj, Professor Emeritus & Former Vice-Chancellor, AMET University
Speakers
• Prof G Raghuram, Professor IIM Ahmedabad & Former Vice-Chancellor, IMU
• Capt S Bhardwaj, Professor Emeritus & Former Vice-Chancellor, AMET University
• Capt Rajesh Tandon, Managing Director, V Ships India
• Capt K N Deboo, Director & Principal, Anglo-Eastern Maritime Training Centre
• Ms. Gouri Gupta, Lead – Programme Development and Strategy, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)
SessionI began with a sales pitch by R Balachandran, CMD, SB Global for National Skill Development Council.
Capt Suresh Bharadwaj started the discussions by talking of the inspection of Training institues by Classifiation Societies. He called upon Dr. Simon to throw light on the developments since he had attended the meeting.
Dr. Simon spoke of the Over regulation of the training institutes was now recognized. So instead of 3 regimes inspecting a training institute, from now on there will be only one. This will be a Recognised Organisation approved by the DGS. The 3 regimes will now form part of the Comprehensive Inspection Programme. There were concerns about domain expertise for the inspectors. He also talked about grading institutions. An institution with 90 or more points maybe graded A+. Such an institution will have fewer surprise inspections and will find it easier to seek approval of courses or increase intake of students.
Capt Debboo felt that MET was overly regulated but CIP was a move in the right direction. For institutes to self regulate, there needs to be more maturity. He felt though the CIP is good, it has been thrust upon the industry without adequate discussion with the stakeholders. He suggested something on the lines of UK MTNB
Capt Rajesh Tandon felt everything is good but felt that it may not be sustained. There has to be a sustained effort to keep updated. He asked Mr Mohandas what happened to the McKinsey report that he had initiated during his tenure as Secretary. He felt it maybe gathering dust and not relevant now in the changed market scenario.
Ms. Gauri Gupta talked of the efforts of their organization in developing skills for employment.
C. SessionII : Strengthening and enriching maritime careers at sea and ashore Session Moderator : Prof (Dr) K A Simon, Director, Kunjali Marakkar School of Marine Engineering, CUSAT Speakers
• Shri K Mohandas, (IAS Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, Govt. of India
• Prof G Raghuram, Professor IIM Ahmedabad & Former Vice-Chancellor, IMU
• Capt Inderveer Solanki, VP (Academics & Research), Applied Research International
• Dr P G Sunil Kumar, Technical Director, Aries Marine & Engineering Services & AIMRI
• Ms Radhika Rani G, Maritime Writer
The session began by remembering Dr. C P Srivastava. Dr Simon felt that there was a call for reduction in training time since Engines are assumed to be failsafe. Dr. Simon felt that the western notion that Training is more important than Education is incorrect. He felt attitudes are developed as a result of education and attitudes are more important than aptitudes. He also felt the need for a body on the lines of AICTE. Maybe AICME with different boards under it looking at different aspects of Maritime Education.
Shri K Mohandas, IAS felt that DGS is not fully equipped to handle education and training as they are already over burdended. He also did not feel it is a good idea to give it to the IRS as they are also not equipped to inspect institutions. He felt AICME maybe a good idea but reminded that many past head of AICTE had been charged with fraudulent activities.
Prof Raghuram again reiterated what he spoke of in the earlier sessions.
Capt Saggi in the audience reminded everyone that the Indian COC was the only ceritificate that was accepted by all administrations the world over. He said that India had built up a human resource over time and all the shipping related offices in the worlds shipping centres are manned by Indians, be it Hong kong, Singapore, Dubai or London.
He felt that there are a lot of verticals in Shipping and they need to be integrated for an holistic understanding of the industry. Also there will be more understanding between departments on the ships and also between ship and shore.
Capt Solanki spoke of the role of the simulator beyond just training. He felt it can be used for assessment as it is already being done for second mates in Nederland. He talked of an instance where pilots on the simulator for Hazira pilotage could not berth the ship in the channel. The feedback from the simulator exercise led to the widening of the channel. He felt seafarers are put in silos the moment they join as cadets. He felt instead of starting new institutes and universities, there should be provision in existing universities to start courses for merchant Navy. This way the merchant navy cadets and officers will not remain in a Silo and will be in touch with the world. They would learn of opportunities outside merchant navy. The current Vice Chancellor of AMET university from the audience felt that Faculty from the merchant navy are not equipped to teach and are paid a lot more than they deserve. He felt academicians should be involved in teaching cadets.
This was countered by Capt. Solanki who felt that experience gained at sea cannot be substituted. Speaking of Careers ashore the moderator called upon senior members in the audience to recall their experiences. Most spoke of the wonderful opportunities in Law and Insurance and Arbirtration and Average Adjusting.
Capt Dinesh Gautama of the NMIS cautioned everyone in looking upto such options as careers. He said it would be easier to look at freight forwarding or agency or pilotage and the like.
The moderator invited the cadets in the audience to speak. After hearing them speak, Prof Raghuram wondered if everything was so rosy then why have this discussion. He cautioned everyone against patting each others back and to wake up to reality.
There were discussions on the utility and effectiveness of the IMU. Some speakers called for the implementation of the recommendations of the Group of Ministers set up to study the issue. They had recommended setting up of individual universities in different parts of the Country. Instead the government set up on University in Chennai with campuses in different locations.
Session-III: Understanding the new generation Seafarers to manage and retain them effectively Session Moderator : Dr Jose Paul, Former Chairman Mormugoa Port Trust
Speakers
• Jb. Abdulgani Y Serang, General Secretary, NUSI
• Capt Ram Ramchandran, Managing Director, Red Eagle Shipping Agencies Pvt Ltd
• Capt Dinesh Gautama, Advisor, Narottam Morarjee Institute of Shipping & President Navkar Corporation Ltd
• Capt. Jose K Thomas, Director, Expedo Marine Services India (P) Ltd.,
• Capt C D Joseph, Managing Director, BSM (India) Pvt Ltd
• Mr Chirag Bahri, Regional Director, South Asia, Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme
The session began with the moderator wondering why- if we had the best certificates in the world- are we only 5% of the worlds Merchant Marine officers Indian? This session had speakers trying to define Gen Y seafarers, their needs and how to manage them. Most speakers felt that the new generation was Family centric, achievement oriented, Team oriented, attention craving and tech savvy. They felt it would no longer be able to ignore the requests from officers who want to be home for apparently small events like their child’s birthday. Offices will have to work around this.
Capt Joseph said that they don’t aim for 100% retention as this would mean a lot of their assets that were trained would have to leave the company as they would not get promoted. He felt that the new generation of seafarers wanted a career path and would like to know where they would be in a few years time. They would like to know how to get to a position ashore. He also cautioned the cadets against expecting adventure and fun at sea. Life at sea, he reminded them was hard.
Jb. Serang lamented the fact that our examination system was difficult and people too a long time to clear it. He wondered why these candidates cleared their exams easily when they went to other countries. He wanted a relook into our system. There was a small debate on whether life at sea is more stressful or less stressful these days. He spoke of the new generation as those who don't greeting with an "Hi!"and putting arm across his shoulder.
The last speaker of the day was Mr Chirag Bahri. He spoke of the need to assure seafarers of the companys support in case of a pirate attack. He spoke of the need to sensitise families to the issue. He spoke of the various training programmes given by Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP)
The Summit was organised by Mr. Wilson Rajan and Sudheer Nambiar of Kerala Sea and Trade
A. Inaugural Session : DELIVERING SEAFARING AS A PROFESSION OF CHOICE
Speakers
• Shri K Babu, Hon’ble Minister of Fisheries, Ports & Excise, Govt. of Kerala
• Shri K Mohandas, (IAS Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, Govt. of India
• Vice-Admiral Pradeep Chauhan AVSM, VSM, Commandant, Indian Naval Academy
• Jb. Abdulgani Y Serang, General Secretary, NUSI
• Prof G Raghuram, Professor IIM Ahmedabad & Former Vice-Chancellor, IMU
The Honourable Ministers’ inaugural speech spoke of logistic sector being a key driver of growth and the coastal shipping being an emergent sector. He spoke of why it was important to move goods over waterways. He said the government was targeting 40% of trade to be carried over waterways by 2020. However there was no light thrown on how this was going to be done. He would have been more comfortable speaking in Malayalam.
Shri K Mohandas gave a very well informed presentation which he began by remembering Shri C P Srivastava, Former IMO Secretary General.
- He in jest said that since we Indians always compare ourselves with China, we can take solace in the fact that they like us aren’t among the 43 nations that have ratified the MLC.
- He said it is safer to sail these days (discounting Piracy incidents) since shipping is a lot more regulated and monitored these days.
- He claimed that seafaring may not be a profession of choice for most, but it is a very strong foundation for a second career and seafarers he came across on shore have all been very good professionals.
- He wanted the current generation of seafarers to be patient as even though ships may have gone from 3000TEU to 18000 TEU, the manning does not increase in the same proportion and so there may be a long waiting period before one gets to join a ship after leave.
- India is a supplier of human capital for the world and in such a scenario, the 6-7% that of seafarers that Indians currently are a proportion of the world seafarers is not adequate. The government had planned to increase that share to 9% by 2020 in their Maritime Agenda.
- Although not as high as in other sectors, there are fraudulent maritime institutes too. The people are gullible and with the promise of easy employability with decent remuneration makes them easy prey to such fraudulent institutes.
- There are many fly by night recruitment agencies that needs to be pulled up by the administration to restore faith in the profession.
- DGS is not capable of handling maritime education and so we need a body like the MCI, AICTE or UGC.
- There is a need to impart value training to the seafarers. He sighted the example of a Master who was showing off his skills and ran his ship aground( reference to Costa Concordia *).
The highlight of the day was the very effective and erudite presentation by Vice-Admiral Pradeep Chauhan AVSM, VSM, Commandant, Indian Naval Academy. With his command over the language and effective style of delivery he made a case for language and humanities in the syllabus. He urged everyone to revisit the basics.
He said that the quality of officer was a problem not just in the Merchant navy or navy but across all sectors. He felt it was fundamentally wrong to avoid humanities and focus on science. He said we have “de-romanticised”the merchant navy ( and navy)and so we (institutes) produce mechanics.
He believes that for developing concepts we need a strong base in Humanities , history and language. For translating such concepts to reality we need the sciences.
He felt it imperative to define what the institute was producing. He talked of his dilemma where the INA he heads produces BTechs who are officers or Officers who are BTechs. He felt the need to clearly define in words the end product desired.
He defined an Officer as “An intellectually, physically, emotionally and behaviourally exemplary, courageous and inspirational leader, imbued with a fine sense of pride, honour and integrity, possessing strong articulation and clear and evident expertise and refinement in multiple domains and deeply committed to the service of his country and the wellbeing of his subordinates”.
He felt training institutes must handle the Role of language in their curriculum. That language is a means of communication, according to him is a myth. Language is an expression of thought, he says. He lamented the fact that Lexicons don’t exist. We don’t use nouns anymore. He illustrated this with an example where an officer gets what he wants without using any nouns - “अरे तुम, नही तुम। हा तुम.वो देना। वो नही ,वो. हा वो”
Romanticism is extinct, he feels, because trainers lack knowledge of language.
He defined Ethic as “ what I do institutionally aligns with what I do individually” If in an organization there is difference between what they purport to do and what they do, that organization breeds unethical people. People are nowadays concerned only about how to man their ships and not in what manner they man
Jb. Abdulgani Serang began his speech by recollecting his collection with Kerala. His great grandfather who founded the NUSI was from Kerala , he said.
He reminded all the speaker not to talk just of seamen because there are many women seafarers who were joining the merchant navy.
He said merchant navy is a profession of passion and was for the bravehearts. He felt people were not aware of merchant navy as a profession as it was not publicized enough. Seafaring for most is not the first choice profession. Whatever little news is there of the merchant navy is negative- piracy, oil pollution etc., He recalled the sacrifices of Indian Merchant men in the World Wars I and II.
He quoted Mr. DT Joseph who said India Lacked a Maritime Constituency and Mr,. Mitropoluous who said that Half the world would starve and the other half would freeze if ships were to stop.
He compared India with Philippines where the president makes it a point to recognize shipping companies. The president in person presents the awards to the best ship recruitment company. There are large hoardings in Philippines that talk of merchant navy.
He was sure everyone would agree that seamen from Lakshadweep were the best. He felt that was because they lived to become a seafarer. They couldn’t progress because they didn’t know English. He talked of how there are many skilled fitters and pumpmen who don’t get an Indian CDC because they don’t know English. They end up getting Seaman book from another country and are gainfully employed. He felt there was something wrong with the system.
Prof G Raghuram delivered the theme address. He felt Seafaring has to become a career of choice.
1. The current state of the economy did not give many opportunities for employement.
2. He asked if Indians were outpricing themselves.
3. He also thought there was not enough publicity and awareness of Merchant navy as a career. Times where when joining Dufferin and DMET was like joining a public school and the products were of a different standards.
4. The course content has to be made contemporary and has to include good humanities. He lamented that we are very technical and wanted to rekindle the romance of the profession.
5. He questioned if we were looking at producing cadets who should hit the deck running or do we want officers who will develop out of the box thinking.
6. He felt we need to choose the right people. Most people he felt stumbled into this career. Entrance standards and requirements must be revisited.
7. He felt institutes should be rated by an independent agency like the IIMs are.
8. He wanted institutes to form an Association so that they can set standards and self-regulate.
9. He wanted the industry to promote continuous research.
B. SessionI : Policy, curriculum and training framework for a well developed MET system Moderator : Capt S Bhardwaj, Professor Emeritus & Former Vice-Chancellor, AMET University
Speakers
• Prof G Raghuram, Professor IIM Ahmedabad & Former Vice-Chancellor, IMU
• Capt S Bhardwaj, Professor Emeritus & Former Vice-Chancellor, AMET University
• Capt Rajesh Tandon, Managing Director, V Ships India
• Capt K N Deboo, Director & Principal, Anglo-Eastern Maritime Training Centre
• Ms. Gouri Gupta, Lead – Programme Development and Strategy, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC)
SessionI began with a sales pitch by R Balachandran, CMD, SB Global for National Skill Development Council.
Capt Suresh Bharadwaj started the discussions by talking of the inspection of Training institues by Classifiation Societies. He called upon Dr. Simon to throw light on the developments since he had attended the meeting.
Dr. Simon spoke of the Over regulation of the training institutes was now recognized. So instead of 3 regimes inspecting a training institute, from now on there will be only one. This will be a Recognised Organisation approved by the DGS. The 3 regimes will now form part of the Comprehensive Inspection Programme. There were concerns about domain expertise for the inspectors. He also talked about grading institutions. An institution with 90 or more points maybe graded A+. Such an institution will have fewer surprise inspections and will find it easier to seek approval of courses or increase intake of students.
Capt Debboo felt that MET was overly regulated but CIP was a move in the right direction. For institutes to self regulate, there needs to be more maturity. He felt though the CIP is good, it has been thrust upon the industry without adequate discussion with the stakeholders. He suggested something on the lines of UK MTNB
Capt Rajesh Tandon felt everything is good but felt that it may not be sustained. There has to be a sustained effort to keep updated. He asked Mr Mohandas what happened to the McKinsey report that he had initiated during his tenure as Secretary. He felt it maybe gathering dust and not relevant now in the changed market scenario.
Ms. Gauri Gupta talked of the efforts of their organization in developing skills for employment.
C. SessionII : Strengthening and enriching maritime careers at sea and ashore Session Moderator : Prof (Dr) K A Simon, Director, Kunjali Marakkar School of Marine Engineering, CUSAT Speakers
• Shri K Mohandas, (IAS Retd.), Former Secretary, Ministry of Shipping, Govt. of India
• Prof G Raghuram, Professor IIM Ahmedabad & Former Vice-Chancellor, IMU
• Capt Inderveer Solanki, VP (Academics & Research), Applied Research International
• Dr P G Sunil Kumar, Technical Director, Aries Marine & Engineering Services & AIMRI
• Ms Radhika Rani G, Maritime Writer
The session began by remembering Dr. C P Srivastava. Dr Simon felt that there was a call for reduction in training time since Engines are assumed to be failsafe. Dr. Simon felt that the western notion that Training is more important than Education is incorrect. He felt attitudes are developed as a result of education and attitudes are more important than aptitudes. He also felt the need for a body on the lines of AICTE. Maybe AICME with different boards under it looking at different aspects of Maritime Education.
Shri K Mohandas, IAS felt that DGS is not fully equipped to handle education and training as they are already over burdended. He also did not feel it is a good idea to give it to the IRS as they are also not equipped to inspect institutions. He felt AICME maybe a good idea but reminded that many past head of AICTE had been charged with fraudulent activities.
Prof Raghuram again reiterated what he spoke of in the earlier sessions.
Capt Saggi in the audience reminded everyone that the Indian COC was the only ceritificate that was accepted by all administrations the world over. He said that India had built up a human resource over time and all the shipping related offices in the worlds shipping centres are manned by Indians, be it Hong kong, Singapore, Dubai or London.
He felt that there are a lot of verticals in Shipping and they need to be integrated for an holistic understanding of the industry. Also there will be more understanding between departments on the ships and also between ship and shore.
Capt Solanki spoke of the role of the simulator beyond just training. He felt it can be used for assessment as it is already being done for second mates in Nederland. He talked of an instance where pilots on the simulator for Hazira pilotage could not berth the ship in the channel. The feedback from the simulator exercise led to the widening of the channel. He felt seafarers are put in silos the moment they join as cadets. He felt instead of starting new institutes and universities, there should be provision in existing universities to start courses for merchant Navy. This way the merchant navy cadets and officers will not remain in a Silo and will be in touch with the world. They would learn of opportunities outside merchant navy. The current Vice Chancellor of AMET university from the audience felt that Faculty from the merchant navy are not equipped to teach and are paid a lot more than they deserve. He felt academicians should be involved in teaching cadets.
This was countered by Capt. Solanki who felt that experience gained at sea cannot be substituted. Speaking of Careers ashore the moderator called upon senior members in the audience to recall their experiences. Most spoke of the wonderful opportunities in Law and Insurance and Arbirtration and Average Adjusting.
Capt Dinesh Gautama of the NMIS cautioned everyone in looking upto such options as careers. He said it would be easier to look at freight forwarding or agency or pilotage and the like.
The moderator invited the cadets in the audience to speak. After hearing them speak, Prof Raghuram wondered if everything was so rosy then why have this discussion. He cautioned everyone against patting each others back and to wake up to reality.
There were discussions on the utility and effectiveness of the IMU. Some speakers called for the implementation of the recommendations of the Group of Ministers set up to study the issue. They had recommended setting up of individual universities in different parts of the Country. Instead the government set up on University in Chennai with campuses in different locations.
Session-III: Understanding the new generation Seafarers to manage and retain them effectively Session Moderator : Dr Jose Paul, Former Chairman Mormugoa Port Trust
Speakers
• Jb. Abdulgani Y Serang, General Secretary, NUSI
• Capt Ram Ramchandran, Managing Director, Red Eagle Shipping Agencies Pvt Ltd
• Capt Dinesh Gautama, Advisor, Narottam Morarjee Institute of Shipping & President Navkar Corporation Ltd
• Capt. Jose K Thomas, Director, Expedo Marine Services India (P) Ltd.,
• Capt C D Joseph, Managing Director, BSM (India) Pvt Ltd
• Mr Chirag Bahri, Regional Director, South Asia, Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme
The session began with the moderator wondering why- if we had the best certificates in the world- are we only 5% of the worlds Merchant Marine officers Indian? This session had speakers trying to define Gen Y seafarers, their needs and how to manage them. Most speakers felt that the new generation was Family centric, achievement oriented, Team oriented, attention craving and tech savvy. They felt it would no longer be able to ignore the requests from officers who want to be home for apparently small events like their child’s birthday. Offices will have to work around this.
Capt Joseph said that they don’t aim for 100% retention as this would mean a lot of their assets that were trained would have to leave the company as they would not get promoted. He felt that the new generation of seafarers wanted a career path and would like to know where they would be in a few years time. They would like to know how to get to a position ashore. He also cautioned the cadets against expecting adventure and fun at sea. Life at sea, he reminded them was hard.
Jb. Serang lamented the fact that our examination system was difficult and people too a long time to clear it. He wondered why these candidates cleared their exams easily when they went to other countries. He wanted a relook into our system. There was a small debate on whether life at sea is more stressful or less stressful these days. He spoke of the new generation as those who don't greeting with an "Hi!"and putting arm across his shoulder.
The last speaker of the day was Mr Chirag Bahri. He spoke of the need to assure seafarers of the companys support in case of a pirate attack. He spoke of the need to sensitise families to the issue. He spoke of the various training programmes given by Maritime Piracy Humanitarian Response Programme (MPHRP)
