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OLEKSANDR KALINICHENKO | DREAMSTIME.COM
Why Filipino seafarers are most preferred in the world, yet education and training is f***d
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By Malou Talosig-Bartolome
Imagine where these products or raw materials are manufactured and how they are transported to where you are right now. Most likely they are shipped as 80 percent of global trade passes through the seas. Behind these daily trading of trillions of dollars of goods are 1.89 million seafarers operating the global fleet. One or two of these seafarers are Filipinos, making the Philippines the largest source of maritime workforce worldwide, the United Nations Conference and Trade and Development (Unctad) said. If there is one single biggest contribution of Filipinos to world trade in recent history, it’s probably the seafarers. So when the European Commission said in December 2021 that it would ban Filipino seafarers from European-flagged ships for deficiencies in training and education, people who are not familiar with the maritime industry were wondering—“What’s wrong?” Why are Filipinos the most preferred seafarers in the world’s shipping industry and yet the education and training they receive falls below international standards?
Global seafaring standards
SEAFARING is one of the most difficult professions in the world. It needs a lot of physical stamina and mental discipline to be able to
safety steer the ship to the ports, prevent disasters that could kill people and damage the environment, as well as maintain the ships to be efficient and profitable. The International Maritime Organization, a specialized agency of the UN, has put together a standard for all countries to determine if someone is fit to become a seafarer. This set of standards is embodied under an international convention called the Standards for Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW). It is like the driver’s license on steroids for all seafarers. You cannot be a crew or officer of a ship unless you have the ICTW, and this is being renewed every five years. Typically, STCW trainings include: • survival at sea • fire prevention • firefighting • first aid and CPR • launching and handling rescue craft • ship-specific familiarization • personal and social responsibilities • marine environment awareness • security awareness and training in case of piracy and hijacking threats • medical fitness These standards apply to all crew, even, for example, for waiters on cruise ships who are not likely to be required to perform firefighting or marine pollution duties. But
ANATOLY MENZHILIY | DREAMSTIME.COM
OOK at the house and buildings that you live in, the cars and trains that you ride, the food that you eat, the clothes you wear and the mobile phones and computers that connect you everywhere.
The International Maritime Organization, a specialized agency of the UN, has put together a standard for all countries to determine if someone is fit to become a seafarer. This is embodied under an international convention called the Standards for Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers. It is like the driver’s license on steroids for all seafarers.
every rank is given a minimum set of education and training requirements for STCW certification. Masters are required more training compared to the able body seaman, the lowest-ranked crew on ship. In the Philippines, the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) has been designated as the “single” and “central administration” to ensure that the Philippines is compliant with the STCW Convention. The peculiar setup, though, is that the Commission on Higher Education (CHED) has administrative control over all colleges and universities in the country, including maritime schools that provide higher learning education. Marina and CHED set specific guidelines and issue memoranda to all maritime schools and training centers on how to implement the STCW. As part of the agree-
ment, all countries who are signatories to the STCW Convention are required to recognize the certification issued by other contracting parties. The IMO, on one hand, is tasked to check if all the countries are STCW-compliant. Here comes now the European Union, with 27 member-states, the world’s biggest trading bloc and whose global trade is 75 percent dependent on the maritime industry. The EU has its own set of standards, but when it comes to maritime safety, it defers to the STCW Convention. Fine, it said. But allow us to check if countries sending seafarers to our countries are indeed following the international rules. Every 10 years, the European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) conducts inspections to the Philippines, being the largest supplier of seafaring manpower in the world.
What EMSA found out
As early as 2006, EMSA had found four deficiencies in the education and training of Filipino cadets as against with international standards set by STCW. In subsequent audits, the deficiencies increased up to 63 areas that need improvement. The BusinessMirror has gotten copies of the EMSA audits and most of the time, the deficiencies are a matter of governance and not competence. Continued on A2
PESO EXCHANGE RATES n US 54.5760 n JAPAN 0.4143 n UK 68.2527 n HK 6.9529 n CHINA 7.9360 n SINGAPORE 41.1708 n AUSTRALIA 36.8497 n EU 59.8044 n KOREA 0.0416 n SAUDI ARABIA 14.5517 Source: BSP (April 5, 2021)