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By Katrina Mennen A. Valdez, Reporter
ONLY 21 out of nearly a hundred maritime schools
in the Philippines deliver skilled graduates, according to one of
the world’s leading international ship managers.
Ivar Thomasli, managing director of the Thome
Shipment Management Group of Companies (TSM), said the government
and local maritime academies have to improve their training programs
to address the shortage in qualified seafarers.
“There are a lot of [maritime] academies in
the Philippines, but only a few produce highly qualified
graduates,” Thomasli said.
Norway-based TSM has a pool of more than 3,000
seafarers, 2,300 of which have already been deployed to sea. The
company supplies crew for more than 130 vessels, of which 110 are
tankers of various types and sizes including. The firm also provides
crew services for other vessel types like container, passenger, roll
on-roll off, general cargo, seismic and research vessels, and tug
boats.
Olav Eek Thorstensen, TSM chairman, said that
before putting the cadets to work, the company provides a
three-month extensive program. At present, TSM trains about 400
cadets and hires 100 Filipino seafarers a year.
“After the training, close to a hundred
percent would pass the stringent exams,” Thorstensen said.
Thomasli said that since the Philippines is seen
to remain the biggest source of seafarers in the coming years, the
government and the private sector should aim for quality education
and training programs.
“In order to meet the strong demand for
seafarers worldwide, the Philippines should make its educational
training more intensive,” Thomasli said.
Filipinos account for 30 percent of seafarers
worldwide, or a 260,000-strong workforce every year. The country
produces about 35,000 cadet graduates a year, but only 30 percent of
them pass the qualifying examinations.
This year, TSM will start its full crew
management business. The company has four shipping vessels in the
Philippines, and plans to add at least two more.
“[We] are focusing [our] attention on the
Philippines. Fifty shipping vessels are [manned by] Filipinos, while
only two of our ships have [a] Chinese workforce,” Thorstensen
said.
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