Seafarers Experience Appealing For Shore

With the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, the world is experiencing distinct and challenging times. Starting a professional career is a difficult option for students in this period, which is full of profits in many jobs and professions. However, it is at the highest level of the maritime profession. The International Maritime Organization (IMO) and many other leading organizations are making significant efforts to attract women to the profession to improve quality and create equal gender opportunities at sea. The shipping industry has two aspects: one is marine and the other is coastal. There are many maritime professions and professional bodies representing this industry and their
employees include no or limited sea experience.

Personnel competence is classified according to the specific terms and conditions of individual maritime activities and member states. Therefore, the possibilities for the use of maritime vessels in coastal works are widely evaluated. Additionally, seafarers’ options for shoreside jobs are not clear or efficient. This is achieved by protecting personal, professionals, instructors with the appropriate qualifications and experience to survive at sea for the rest of their lives, covering the EU and the world. Specifically for this project, it is the availability in digital form of a mechanism for shoreside jobs for maritime people who currently work at sea for long periods of time and gain valuable experience. This problem exists in most EU members. The SEA4SHORE project will examine this issue from a sample of five regions.

The SEA4SHORE project aims to develop a competency map and profiles of alternative career paths for seagoing personnel ashore with an online tool to assist in assessing their opportunities for shore- based work. SEA4SHORE partnership consists of maritime schools, nautical academies, online training companies, and maritime training providers from six EU countries (LV, TR, ES, LT, GR, HR), ensuring a robust implementation and sustainability in the maritime sector. By making seafarers’ skills recognized in shore-based jobs, the project seeks to enhance work mobility for European citizens.

The SEA4SHORE project partnership is composed by six major education and training centers, private companies, universities in several EU countries supported by their awarding, accrediting and/or certification authorities:

• Riga Technical University (Latvia);
• MARITIME INNOVATORS (Turkey);
• Lithuanian Maritime Academy (Lithuania);
• University of Rijeka (Croatia);
• IDEC (Greece);
• Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya – UPC (Spain).

More information on the SEA4SHORE project can be found on the page sea4shore.com.