Sea-going skills in big demand

By DITA DE BONI

The Manukau Institute of Technology's Maritime School has won a $600,000 contract to train 400 seagoing officers from Pacific countries including Samoa, Fiji, Tonga and Kiribati.

The school's director, Captain Tim Wilson, says the contract gives the local training industry some added international clout.

"It is the biggest contract to be awarded to the school in its 76-year history, and reinforces its position as one the pre-eminent providers of maritime training services in the Asia Pacific."

The contract, to teach seafarers modern navigational, engineering, and other technical requirements for running and maintaining large vessels, is being paid for by the British Government's Department for International Development.

All the world's seagoing officers are having to retrain to comply with an international convention that comes into force next January.

It requires all seagoing officers to learn modern ship technology and be trained for the first time in areas such as crisis management and crowd control, "to help avert some of the passenger disasters that have happened in the past."

The school has also been shortlisted for a $500,000 contract in Tuvalu, financed by the Asia Development Bank.

The Maritime School is the only school in New Zealand training seagoing officers for "export" on large foreign ships.

Around 3500 students pass through its courses each year.

Captain Wilson expects there will be a severe shortage of maritime personnel in New Zealand in the next 10 years, and says the school's 100-odd courses are becoming increasingly popular.

Herald Online Marine News