Should seafarers ditch their career at sea early? This demographic debate sparked heated discussion at the inaugural Maritime CEO Forum in Singapore today.
Mark Charman, ceo of Faststream Recruitment and a moderator at today’s event, pointed to a recent survey from his firm in which it was shown the average age these days that seafarers want to head ashore is just 31.
“Seafarers want to come ashore earlier,” Charman said.
P B Subbiah, director of human resources at Pacific Basin Shipping, believed that crew should come ashore earlier. “It is hard when you are in your mid- to late-40s coming ashore as you start at the bottom of the ladder. There is no way you will get the top job,” said Subbiah.
Kenny Rogers, head of Aurora Tankers, agreed with Subbiah, saying: “It is very difficult to come into lower management when you have been a captain of chief engineer before. It is better to come in earlier.”
Frank Coles, the head of maritime technology firm Transas, who himself came ashore aged 30 after 12 years at sea, said companies need to make greater interaction between ship and shore. He noted how one large European container player rotated masters through head office every three months.
Warwick Norman disagreed. The head of vetting platform RightShip said: “It would be disastrous if we were turning over our seagoing staff at 31. We need to make the conditions onboard better.”
The problem with that, Coles said, is that: “The desire to improve conditions is not there.”
Lars Modin from V. Ships warned that sending people ashore too early would create too many “incompetent people” both ashore and at sea.
HR and crewing formed one of four sessions at today’s Maritime CEO Forum at the Fullerton Hotel. Reports from the other three sessions will be carried throughout the rest of this week.
Maritime CEO Forum is sponsored by Anglo-Eastern Univan Group, Dualog, DVB Bank, FCM Marine & Energy, Navigate Response, RightShip, Rustibus, Transas, Unimarine Lubricants, Veritas Petroleum Services, V.Ships and Wartsila.
I would recommend people to stay at sea for longer, and if they find they are bored with life at sea, look for another company rather than come ashore early.
The very best people are those who have alternated between the two.
How about taking the cheaper route? Take into consideration of WHY we are tired of being offshore! It’s the company directors/management/supervisors! They’re mostly the BIGGEST pain in the ass! A couple of buck(s) pay raise(S!) now and then doesn’t hurt either! Then there’s this whole communication thing,… (or lack there of,…)
James
Agree with previous comment by James!
On another note, when there is no work for us at sea (like the present circumstances) what choice do we have? I have spent over 30 years at sea and don’t want to leave, but have not been able to find a seagoing position for over 6 months now in ANY deck position!
I don’t want to waste over 30 years of seagoing experience and master unlimited license (including many extremely time consuming and expensive training courses), but it looks like I’m going to wind up working at McDonalds soon.
Hi Jill — with your free time mull writing a Contribution for Splash — check our Contributions section – I reckon you have plenty of interesting things to write about!
so people dont give a damn even if it is crew or an officer or a master , i request splash to provide or write an article how a rating can find a position ashore or skills he can improve other than working in McDonalds i myself an Able bodied seaman i got work continuously with less and no way of improving my competence this is a big question for all seaman especially from Asia so any thoughts ?? or information Unions dont do their part and from all those corrupt Asian countries seaman life is getting hard