The Singapore Maritime Officers’ Union (SMOU) has introduced a new programme to encourage Singaporeans to pursue careers as marine engineers.
Having worked for years to address the shortage of Singaporean seafarers, the SMOU and its training arm, Wavelink Maritime Institute, will team up with the government and industry partners to launch the Tripartite Engineering Training Award (TETA) Programme in the upcoming months. This is also a place-and-train initiative, similar to the Tripartite Nautical Training Award (TNTA) for seafarers.
The TETA Programme was launched at the biennial Maritime Manpower Singapore event on 16 July.
SMOU general secretary Mary Liew said, “The maritime industry contributes an astounding 7% of Singapore’s GDP, and our aim is to continue to bring about greater awareness of well-paying career opportunities to young Singaporeans. With immense support from the government and its tripartite partners, this is an opportune time for those who have never considered, and would like to pursue seafaring as a career, to consider this exciting path. Even for those considering a career change, seafaring will help to provide a better job, better pay, and better lives.”
Looking ahead, IHS Maritime & Trade’s latest fleet statistics show that about 2,194 ships will be delivered in 2015 alone, including all commodity fleets, vehicle carriers, roll-on/roll-off ships, and offshore support vessels. These additions will bring the total global fleet size to 43,480 ships for 2015, and is projected to grow 9.8 percentage points over the next five years, reaching 48,200 ships by 2020.
Many new vessel types that feature more innovative technology, fuel efficiency, and scaled-up sizes will be delivered over the next two years and by 2020, the global fleet will see an addition of 90 very large gas carriers for seaborne LPG, 286 crude oil tankers (including crude oil product tankers) above 80,000 dwt, 149 LNG carriers, 157 drilling rigs, 58 drill ships, 1,592 dry bulk carriers of all sizes, as well as 439 fully cellular container ships, according to IHS Maritime’s latest Fleet Capacity Forecast report.
This post was sourced from IHS Maritime 360: View the original article here.
