US students gain maritime experience in SA
A GROUP of top US maritime business students are visiting South Africa’s major shipping centres in the city and Nelson Mandela Bay this month to learn from the local industry and explore the cultural complexity of the global maritime industry.
Hosted by the South African International Maritime Institute (SAIMI), the 19 top-performing students from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy are accompanied by their South African-born lecturer, Dr Portia Ndlovu.
The visit forms part of an experiential learning programme, with the students starting their tour last week in Nelson Mandela Bay, where SAIMI is based.
From there they moved on to the Western Cape, where they will spend the remainder of the month visiting major maritime industry businesses and education and training providers.
Ndlovu said part of the reason for the students’ visit to South Africa was the need to be part of the “global respect train”.
While the sector and its education and training facilities were adapting to rapid technological advances spawned by the fourth industrial revolution, Ndlovu said students also needed to acquire the interpersonal communication skills required to work in the global shipping industry.
“As such students at the academy are not only exposed to experiential training, but also to the different cultures they are likely to encounter along their career paths,” she said.
“The global maritime family is expanding all the time and it is vitally important to understand the different cultures that they may encounter,” she added.
SAIMI spokesperson Samantha Venter said effective cultural exchange was crucial in facilitating the transfer of global best practices and in finding solutions that work for each environment and customer.
“Being able to support professional development and share our advances with international visitors is a big part of putting the African maritime sector on the global map,” Venter said.
Venter said the focus of the tour for both parties was to learn from each other and to explore the possibility of further exchanges of expertise in the future.
The Massachusetts-based academy’s senior student and tour leader, Nick Zaia, said the maritime sector opened up a world of opportunities but it required discipline and a sense of responsibility to succeed.
“Our training also incorporates a military aspect.
“While not everyone will pursue a shipping career in the military – within the coastguard for example – it is still vital that everyone in the industry has a sense of leadership and discipline,” he said.