Colleges battle to train graduates for life at sea

Colleges are struggling to produce enough merchant seamen to meet demand, even though more graduates with non-maritime degrees are opting for a life at sea, experts have warned.

More than 10,000 graduates who studied non-maritime majors have joined the merchant fleet since 2006, thanks to training offered as part of a government program to support the ship industry.

However, according to Li Enhong, director of merchant seamen management at the Ministry of Transport, colleges are able to produce only a few thousand merchant sailors every year, far short of what is needed.

"We realize the serious problems caused by the shortage of seamen, and it may restrain trade," Li told China Daily.

"It takes just months to build a large boat, but at least four to five years to train a qualified seaman to operate it."

China's trade has been developing rapidly since entry into the World Trade Organization, and this requires an increasing number of merchant seamen.

Foreign trade passed $3.6 trillion last year, an increase of 22.5 percent, according to the General Administration of Customs.

To meet demand, the program encouraged maritime colleges to enroll graduates with non-maritime backgrounds and train them for a year.

"Previously, only graduates with science backgrounds were allowed to enroll for training, as their courses were similar to those of maritime majors," said Chen Fuhan, deputy dean of Dalian Maritime University's school of navigation, in Northeast China's Liaoning province. "Now we can enroll students majoring in liberal arts, such as English and law majors."

Most who signed up were swayed by a lack of opportunity on land and the offer of a lucrative salary, he said.

"A helmsman can earn $2,000 a month after several years working in China," Chen said. "This is definitely a good wage compared with many jobs for graduates."

Dong Ning, a helmsman for Jinzhou Bochao Shipping Services in the coastal province of Liaoning, said he worked as a mobile phone salesman for the first eight years after graduating from college with a thermal engineering degree. His monthly salary was about 3,000 yuan ($470).

"Expenses soared after I got married and had a baby, and what I earned before I joined the shipping sector could barely cover mortgage payments and school fees," he said.

Dong enrolled in a maritime training program at Dalian Maritime University in 2007 and started work as a seaman a year later.

"Ship work is hard, but the wages are good," he added.

Ruan Wei, a professor at Shanghai Maritime University, also part of the program, said after a year of training, students generally met technical requirements. "However, we find they usually lack professional awareness, unlike graduates who have been immersed in maritime culture for at least three or four years before graduation," he said.

Since 2007, up to 1,000 graduates with non-maritime degrees enrolled every year at the Dalian school.

Some of the graduates also joined international shipping companies, Chen, the school's deputy head, said.

"More than 10 percent of our graduates chose to work for overseas companies, such as Pacific Basin in Hong Kong," he said.

More than 100,000 Chinese maritime workers were sent overseas last year, making China the fourth-largest exporter of maritime labor, according to the Ministry of Transport.

"We recruit about 250 maritime college graduates across China every year for shipping companies in Singapore and European countries," said Liang Weizhen, a training manager at a branch of Singhai Marine Services in Shanghai.

"Many of them are graduates with non-maritime majors."

Liang said all the recruits undergo English language training before they are sent to overseas companies.

"According to the feedback we get from these companies, Chinese seamen are generally strong in skills and practice, but relatively weak in English," she said.

Colleges were required this year to extend training offered to graduates on the government program from one year to 18 months.

Partly because of this, Chen said enrollment at the Dalian Maritime University fell this year. Another factor is the bleak outlook for the shipping industry.

Meanwhile, Li said that as society becomes more affluent, the lack of qualified seamen will become more serious.

"Spending six months at a time at sea is boring and has no appeal for many young people," he said. "The decline in the number of seamen is inevitable as the economy develops, which has happened in other countries such as Japan. In addition, traditional culture, such as Confucianism, discourages Chinese people from being far away from their parents and homeland."

wangxiaodong@chinadaily.com.cn