Seafaring an attractive career now

Seafaring an attractive career now

Bhuj: With the country being a maritime nation from ancient times because of its long coast line, it today offers a challenging and paying career with flexibility no other profession or avocation does, observed veteran seaman, captain HK Sibal, head of the marine department of the country's biggest major port, while dwelling on this year'sNational Maritime Day theme - Seafaring: A career of opportunities.
Talking exclusively to DNA at Kandla to mark the 47th National Maritime Day, Sibal who still pilots incoming and outgoing ships in the Kandla channel in view of shortage of trained pilots even though his is mainly an executive job, said a career in seafaring not only provides an adventure and thrill to the youth, it provides fortunes one seeks in young age in a short period.
"In our times we had no option when we chose a sea career as a cadet after passing our matriculation. Now, no one has to be a sailor for lifetime. There is in fact an axiom in the shipping industry that once a sailor always a sailor. And our old generation who had no training opportunities has to be a sailor lifelong with the same limited income. This is not the case today with young seamen with a B.Sc degree in nautical science which one gets after completion of a three-year course on board ships."
He said the new entrant gets not only a package that one gets in other jobs at much later period of one's service, but even a flexibility to shift to other shipping or non-shipping jobs at a very young age.
"This happens this way, when you are at sea you get everything and thus you save substantial amount from your salary. This is not possible in any other profession or job," he said, adding that seafaring jobs were now offered both by Indian and foreign shipping companies on contract basis with a huge packages. He said in fact demand of seafarers was increasing because of increasing trend in shipping of export and import cargoes through cheapest sea routes.
He said that the maritime education provided newer job opportunities in marine insurance, marine ecology and environment, ocean engineering, off-shore engineering, maritime safety and management, hydrographic data management, oceanography and ocean mapping.
Giving his own example, he said his highly trained seafarer son was in a better position having achieved in young age he could not and asked the youth, specially from this prominent maritime state of Gujarat which possessed the country's longest coastline to chose their career in this new field which was both thrilling and full of adventure besides being monetarily attractive.

Source Link: http://www.dnaindia.com/academy/report_seafaring-an-attractive-career-now_1370801