SPECIAL REPORT:
EDUCATION = TRANSPORTATION AND TRADE SMARTS
Other courses provide more expansive understanding, appreciation of the industry
By KATHLYN HORIBE
May 4, 2009
In the next 10 years, employment opportunities will abound in the marine sector. According to the Niagara Marine Secretariat, a now defunct joint undertaking of Transport Canada and Service Canada, projected jobs will number 1,300. Of these full-time positions, 73 per cent will arise due to personnel retiring.
By 2014, permanent retirements are expected to climb to 430,000 – almost 75 per cent of all job openings – said a 2005 report by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada.
“Overall, there’s a huge demand for both navigators and engineers,” said Peter Buell, director of the Great Lakes International Marine Training Centre at Georgian College in Owen Sound, Ont.
John Clarkson, associate dean of the School of Transportation at the British Columbia Institute of Technology, agrees. “The industry is finding that they have a big skill shortage in marine engineering,” he said. “Nearly every company you talk to, whether in the Great Lakes, on the East Coast, on the West Coast, even internationally, marine engineering is in big demand.”
Four institutions in Canada primarily conduct marine training for new entrants, namely high school or junior college graduates or those new to the industry. In addition to Georgian College and Burnaby-based BCIT, the other two are Memorial University’s Marine Institute in St. John’s and the Institut maritime du Québec in Rimouski.
All offer cadet programs in both marine engineering and nautical sciences or marine navigation, ranging from three to four years – depending on provincial requirements – and graduate junior officers. For existing seafarers who want to upgrade their qualifications, the bridge watchman program consists of 12 weeks of training approved by Transport Canada and the International Maritime Organization. Graduates obtain positions such as deckhand watch keepers and helmsmen on any size vessel.
Another program for those already employed in the shipping industry is offered collaboratively by the Shipping Federation of Canada and Concordia University’s Centre for Continuing Education in Montreal. Over an 18-month period, the Certificate in Marine Transportation, a non-credit program first offered in 1996, consists of five courses delivered on-site or through distance learning by people directly involved with, or working in, the industry.
“What we offer is not so much an opportunity to ‘upgrade’ skills as an opportunity to formalize the learning that students have already been exposed to and expand that knowledge into a broader and more expansive understanding and appreciation of the industry,” said Karen Kancens, director of communications and co-ordinator of the Shipping Federation’s educational programs.
Jobs for all students
For new entrants, getting a job won’t be a problem
“Both programs at Great Lakes have a near 100 per cent rate of employment on graduation,” Capt. Buell said. “Our students often have offers of employment before they finish their studies. Many go on to work for shipping companies that move cargo through the St. Lawrence Seaway and the Great Lakes, while some graduates work on ocean-going vessels, cruise ships and ferries.”
Navigation graduates start as third mates, while engineering students secure positions as fourth-class engineers.
“Nautical sciences is the most popular program with twice as many applicants compared to marine engineering,” Capt. Clarkson said. “You can equate this to everyone wants to be the captain and few people want to be the chief engineer. It’s more of an image profile that people acquire over the years with this type of occupation.”
“When the movie Titanic appeared in the theatres, the number of people who applied for the navigation program for deck officers doubled at our school,” said Alain Richard, director of the Institut maritime du Québec.
Both deck and engine are very demanding and unique occupations, Capt. Clarkson said. “People who come into the programs have to be very dedicated to that lifestyle.”
Fifty per cent of BCIT’s cadets are placed with cruise companies. “We have an exclusive contract with Princess Cruises, which Carnival owns and also operates Cunard,” he said. “We put cadets on the new Cunard ships, which was a real kudo for us. We’re working with Royal Caribbean, and Norwegian Cruise Line is coming on site now. We haven’t started with Holland America but we’re looking at issues around putting cadets and junior officers on (their ships).”
The IMQ, which was established in 1944, also has cadets on four or five Royal Caribbean Cruises ships. “Students also obtain positions with companies that sail on the Great Lakes as well as companies here in Quebec like Groupe Desgagnés, Oceanex and Canada Steamship Lines,” Mr. Richard said. “We’re also dealing with foreign shipping companies like Euronav, a big tanker company. Last year, all our students got jobs. We had 100 per cent employment in every program. ”
Companies that import or export products hire the IMQ’s transportation logistics graduates, while those from the technology in naval architecture program work in shipyards or for insurance firms or Transport Canada.
“Most students have had exposure to the marine industry, whether through a family member or friend,” Capt. Buell said. “Some students also grew up in areas with heavy marine traffic, such as the Niagara region. These students have a good gauge on the benefits of a marine career and have an urge to work in an adventurous field.
“A current navigation student at Georgian is a former yachting instructor who earned a degree from another institution, worked in the financial field and then decided he wanted a career on the water.”
Enrolment at BCIT is full, Capt. Clarkson said, and there’s a waiting list. “We put on approximately three classes of bridge watchman a year and all of our marine emergency duties, electronic navigation and what we call block upgrader courses are completely full. In many cases, we’ve had to double up or put extra ones on to meet the demand. When economic times are tough, academia generally picks up.”
“From an employer’s perspective, it’s the most skilled, knowledgeable and adaptable employees who are likely to survive if downsizing has to take place,” Ms. Kancens said.
Increasing awareness of marine
In general, however, the marine industry is hard pressed to attract recruits.
To outline the various opportunities, Georgian College is starting a campaign directed at high school guidance counsellors, Employment Insurance and various organizations. “Given the current economic climate, we’re embarking on an information and recruiting campaign to bring more awareness of opportunities in the marine industry,” Capt. Buell said.
The campaign includes a DVD, which will present an industry overview, available opportunities and why Georgian College is the place to obtain the required training. “We’ve found that many people are blissfully unaware of how important the marine industry is in Canada,” he said.
BCIT conducts its recruitment at high schools and job fairs. “We do as much recruitment as we can but we’re competing with universities and family interests,” Capt. Clarkson said. “With many young people, their parents decide that they should go to university.”
Glenn Blackwood, executive director of Memorial University’s Marine Institute, agrees it’s a challenge to attract young people to ships’ officer training. “The Marine Institute has been highly successful in partnering with local, national and international shipping companies to provide work-term experience and graduate employment,” he said. “Working with industry has also been vital to understanding the new skills needed for the ever-changing oceans industries.”
Georgian College has also partnered with Transport Canada and leading shipping companies. The college’s main appeal, however, is advanced technology, Capt. Buell said. In November, its new $8.5-million, 20,000-square-foot training centre opened, featuring “the most up-to-date navigation and engine room simulators in the country.”
Four navigation simulators create life-like images of any port in the world and a number of ship styles. Housed in a round room 50 feet in diameter is an 18-foot-high bridge equipped with 10 projectors capable of projecting 360-degree visuals. The first-class simulator “has been described as ‘Imax on steroids,’” Capt. Buell said.
Ms. Kancens said, “Our courses and programs provide an opportunity to formalize skills and competencies often learned informally on the job and pull them together into a comprehensive whole.”
As for BCIT’s main appeal, Capt. Clarkson said, “We believe we have the best cadet program in Canada, and certainly the industry appears to indicate that to us. Outside of the Coast Guard College, we have the only uniformed cadet program. Students wear a merchant marine uniform on campus so we can instil the lifestyle structure, and that’s very well received by everyone.”
He also attributes BCIT’s appeal to its North Vancouver location, which attracts students from throughout B.C., and the fact it is the only campus in Canada with U.K. Maritime and Coast Agency approval for many courses. In addition, the nearest institution to BCIT is Ontario’s Georgian College.
“We’re also the only campus in Canada other than the Coast Guard College that puts students through a selection process, so they’re in very high demand and employment is 100 per cent,” Capt. Clarkson said. “In fact, in their fourth year, most of them are earning substantial wages as junior officers before they even graduate.”
The Canadian Coast Guard College, situated in Sydney, N.S., trains officer cadets in marine engineering or navigation to protect Canada’s 243,000-kilometre coastline, its vast ocean resources and those who go to sea. It also trains Canada’s public service employees involved in marine safety and environmental protection.
As for the IMQ, which also has a Saint-Romuald, Que., campus, Mr. Richard said, “We are the only school in North America that provides marine education in French. The Institut also gives training for certification on foreign-going ships.”
Most of the marine schools in Canada have a speciality, he added. Georgian College gives courses for certification mainly on the Great Lakes, BCIT targets the tugs and the coastal ships, and Memorial the supply boats and fishing vessels.
“A lot of our graduates in navigation come back here to train to be a pilot on the St. Lawrence River,” Mr. Richard added. This year, a student exchange is taking place with a national marine school in Nantes, France, and plans are underway for a teacher exchange next year.
Mr. Blackwood said that students are attracted to Memorial by its ability to offer up to 100 per cent employment and the practical learning environment with some of the largest and most comprehensive training facilities in Canada and the world.
This year, Atlantic Canada’s largest university is launching new masters programs in maritime management and technology management. It also offers a three-year diploma in marine environmental technology and Canada’s only maritime studies undergraduate degree, a bachelor of maritime studies.
One institution starting up cadet programs in both navigation and engineering is the Nova Scotia Community College in Port Hawkesbury. “Our cadet programs have targets of 20 students in navigation and 20 in engineering,” said Kevin Henderson, academic chair, oceans, of the School of Fisheries and Nautical Institute.
“We’re all striving to meet that skill shortage,” Capt. Clarkson said, “and we’re all very concerned around the ability to get young people interested in a marine occupation.”
As for the Shipping Federation, it recently held a one-day course on containerization and logistics that explored supply chain management in a global economy. “We plan on doing more of these types of seminars over the coming year,” Ms. Kancens said. “The material we’ve developed for the certificate program will be condensed into more ‘bite-sized’ morsels for students. We’ll also continue to conduct compliance-training sessions for our members. The day-long seminars focus on compliance requirements with respect to specific regulatory regimes, such as ballast water management.”