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Grads turn to sea for careers

By Xin Dingding (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-02-13 07:39

HAIKOU: An increasing number of college graduates and high school pass-outs are now turning to sea for a career on board commercial ships.

Li Enhong, an official with China Maritime Superintendency Administration under the Ministry of Transport, said yesterday that a "seaman training program" for college and high school graduates from central and western China has received more applications than ever before.

Ding Yong, Party secretary of the navigation department of Dalian Maritime University, said the number of applications the university received in the second half of last year was "60 percent higher" than in the same period in 2007.

Officials attributed the drastic increase to the sluggish employment market caused by the global economic meltdown.

"We expect the program to train at least 4,000 applicants this year, up from the usual 2,000 to 3,000 over the past two years," Li said, adding that more and more youngsters are getting attracted to careers on commercial ships because of the "handsome pay".

"A college graduate needs to undergo training for a year, while a high school pass-out is trained for two years before they can sit for the national seafarer qualification test. Once they clear the test, they are eligible to become third officers on ships sailing international routes after a year's internship," he said.

The average annual pay for a third officer is about 100,000 yuan, much higher than what most college graduates expect to make in their first few years, he added.

A 2007 survey by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said that the average monthly salary for college graduates was "only 2,483 yuan".

Li said a number of seafarers, especially those above the rank of third officers, were still required despite the current economic crisis, which has resulted in a slump in the shipping market.

The International Maritime Organization said that there was a "serious shortage" of seafarers in the overseas shipping industry.

"The global shortage of seafarers, especially officers, has already reached serious proportions, threatening the very future of the international shipping industry, which is the lifeblood of world trade," said a notice on its official website.

According to the notice, there is a current shortage of 34,000 officers in the international shipping industry. The figure is expected to rise to a whopping 83,900 by 2012, it said.

Domestically, the demand for sailors has not dwindled either.

Li said that all the near 17,000 aspirants who cleared the national seafarer qualification test last year landed jobs.

Though China has about 1.55 million sailors, only about 170,000 of them are qualified to work as officers on commercial ships, he said.