Sea school wins Pacific millions

By PAM GRAHAM

Captain Tim Wilson navigates container ships from ashore these days. He runs a school teaching everything from freight forwarding to how to avoid a sandbar.

The latter is taught in downtown Auckland on a simulator.

Demand for knowledge about the sea and shipping is such that the New Zealand Maritime School has been able to top up funding for equipment such as simulators by selling its services in the Pacific and Asia.

The most recent contract for the school, part of the Manukau Institute of Technology, is for the New Caledonia-based Secretariat of the Pacific Community. The Secretariat runs programmes aimed at reducing poverty and developing facilities.

Its maritime programme helps Pacific nations comply with international rules and train people. The school's contract, worth $50,000, is to review progress on maritime programmes and suggest next steps.

The contract adds to more than $2 million of work, mostly in the Pacific, won by the school.

"We have focused on the Pacific and also there has been some donor funding for maritime projects in the past two years," Wilson said.

Why bother? "We need outside income to survive."

The school has about 3000 students a year, 1000 from overseas. Sixty per cent of the students sign up for courses that are specifically maritime.