Maritime program scheme prevents cadets from graduating

ASPIRING Filipino seafarers miss out on shipboard job opportunities the moment they enter a maritime school,

Glenn Mark Blasquez, vice president of the Association of Technical Schools in Manila (ATSMI) and vice president for operations and general manager of the Manila-based training center Southern Institute for Maritime Studies (SIMS), said.

Blasquez said that the maritime program scheme of 3-1 leaves many cadets as undergraduates due to the lack of onboard training (OBT) slots.

Under the 3-1 scheme, maritime students must undergo three years of academic studies and one year of shipboard training before graduation.

With the lack of OBT slots from shipping companies, however, many maritime students do not graduate, thus wasting years of education and tuition.

“Bottleneck talaga ang pagsampa (Shipboard training has become a bottleneck),” Blasquez said.

Sabino Czar Manglicmot 3rd, president of the Philippine Association of Maritime Institutions (PAMI),

said that while shipboard training was originally intended to expedite the development of marine officers, it only evolved into a significant impediment, contributing to the prolonged delay in the conferral of baccalaureate diplomas for numerous maritime students.

PAMI said that shipboard training extends the duration of graduation of maritime cadets, thus impeding their deployment onboard ships and subsequently delaying the production of qualified officers.

Manglicmot said that maritime schools cannot demand shipping companies to allocate slots for cadets onboard a ship that is usually run by only around 20 to 30 crew members. Hence, out of the 25,000 to 30,000 maritime students yearly, only a small 20 percent make it to sea.

“We are not in the business of shipping, and shipowners are not in the business of education. How can we tell them to deploy all our cadets?” he said.

Shipboard training is not a requirement under the Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW) Convention. The Philippines stands alone in enforcing this stipulation as a graduation pre-requisite.

“This was included in the bachelor’s program, so many are unable to graduate because of lack of training,” Blasquez said.

He explained that while a 12-month shipboard training is stipulated in the STCW Convention, it does not specify that the training must be implemented during education.

Blasquez cited Panama’s maritime program scheme of 4+1: four years of academic studies, and upon graduation, they can apply for a license after a year of shipboard training.

“Their program ensures that all students are able to graduate. And because they already have a degree and diploma, they can apply for work even outside of the maritime industry should they fail to obtain a shipboard training,” he said.

Blasquez revealed that certain groups take advantage of the lack of shipboard training opportunities by putting up “consultancies.”

He said that such businesses would coax people to pay as much as P80,000 in exchange for shipboard training.

“I’m sure these groups would be the first to oppose should the government decide to move shipboard training outside the maritime education program. It would kill their business,” he said.

Blasquez said that the Department of Migrant Workers raided and shut down four companies that offer such services.

Way forward

“If the government is truly serious in addressing this matter, they can write to the International Maritime Organization (IMO), just like what Norway did, to allow simulator training as an equivalency of OBT.

“Another option is to seek a partnership with the Philippine Coast Guard (PCG) or the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) so that our cadets can train onboard their ships. This is even better as part of the quasi-military training of our students. It would also allow them to serve the country,” he said.

Currently, the government’s move to address the matter is to require maritime schools to buy a training ship as part of the OBT requirement — a mandate that is “unimplementable” according to PAMI as it will be costly for maritime schools.

“Besides, there is no vessel classification for Training Ships here in the Philippines. The Maritime Industry Authority requires that ships should originally be built as training ships and not refurbished passenger vessels,” Blasquez said.