The shortage of seafarers : developing industry/employer of choice and employment brand strategies

Abstract

The globally recognized BIMCO/ISF study on the Demand and Supply of seafarers has been reporting the shortage of seafarers at an interval of every 5 years since 1990. The shortage has been a persisting issue and affects every maritime nation. Over the years, nations are fast developing and there are many other job opportunities available on shore instead. With many other factors included, the seafaring industry is slowly losing its luster and attractiveness.

With this background, this research studies the factors behind the shortage of qualified seafarers, the effectiveness of the current marketing strategies that nations have employed, and other strategies that can be further improvised on. This research report will focus in the context of Singapore and comparisons with other nations will be inferred.

Through interviews and surveys, we can obtain data from relevant sources on their opinions in the seafaring industry. We will focus on these stakeholders in this industry, namely the educational institutions, the governmental bodies and the shipowning/ shipmanagement companies.

This report strives to serve as a stepping-stone to other initiatives that may be developed and also as a reference to other future researches.