Ship&Offshore | Issue 06/2024
Most wanted
The shortage of skilled labour continues to affect many business sectors, but it is particularly dramatic in the maritime industry, specifically at sea. Germany’s Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement (BSM) recently stated that in the coming years, the global merchant fleet will face a shortage of thousands of officers. While clever minds build high-tech ships and develop future-proof applications, it is increasingly likely that there will not be enough well-trained personnel to operate them. This is not new and various promising international initiatives along the entire value chain are already trying to tackle the challenge, such as the year (or now even the decade) of training (“Jahr der Ausbildung”) proclaimed by the German Shipowners’ Association (VDR) in 2023 and the recent announcement by BSM to introduce a new educational programme for trainee seafarers in collaboration with selected maritime universities....