Cover Story

Nurturing shipping’s frontline to meet future industry needs

At Wilhelmsen Ship Management, our seafarers are at the heart of everything we do in business. Because of their experiences, professionalism, and competence, we are an established global leader in ship management.

India and the Philippines are among the world’s largest suppliers of seafarers. For over 40 years, both have been a major recruitment pool of highly skilled personnel for us.

“Globally, the shortage of seafarers has been a challenge for the shipping industry,” said Carl Schou, CEO and President of Wilhelmsen Ship Management. “To address this, we have consistently increased our cadet program intake on average by 24% yearly for the past fi ve years. We also work with our owners to create a sustainable pipeline of offi cers by putting more junior offi cers’ positions onboard.”

Our Philippines cadet programme has seen seafarer intake rise 194% in the last fi ve years. Some 40% of its current pool is of offi cer rank, with 2% female offi cers.

Our India cadet programme has seen seafarer intake rise 140% in the last fi ve years. Some 52% of its current pool is of offi cer rank, with 1% female offi cers.

--With a strong pipeline of cadets and increased junior offi cers’ positions, we are doing our part to bridge the upcoming supply and demand gap. In parallel, Wilhelmsen Ship Management advocates diversity, equity, and inclusion onboard vessels in a traditionally maledominated industry. Our intake of female cadets accounts for 4% of our global annual intake of seafarers. In this issue, we showcase Captain Lee Eun Ran, our fi rst female Korean captain who began her career with us as a cadet.

In the same vein, Deck Cadet Avenido, John Leonard also refl ects on his experiences in an article entitled “Pandemic Apprentice”.

Decarbonization and digitalization are essential evolution points, prompting the maritime industry to shift gears. The sector is transitioning its fl eet towards low or zero-emission fuels such as liquifi ed natural gas, methanol, ammonia, and hydrogen. Such fuels will require skills and expertise to ensure safe bunkering and operability of new engine types. Digitalization continues to intensify and will increasingly play an essential role in seafarers’ ability to monitor emissions, interpret data into actions and operate ships effi ciently.

Both factors are shaping the trajectory of future recruitment demands and the need for competent seafarers to operate future ships. We aim to equip every seafarer with the skills to do their jobs safely and effi ciently. Our in-house training centre, International Maritime Training Centre (IMTC), is equipped with state-of-the-art simulators and provides approximately 50 maritime internationally certifi ed and Director General of Shipping approved courses. Established in 1998 to provide training for our seafarers, IMTC has expanded to serve over 60 external ship owners and managers.

5 years +194%

2% of cadets are female

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Cadet intake in the Philippines

5 years +140%

1% of cadets are female

2017 2018 2019 2020 2021

Cadet intake in India

The centre has issued over 4000 certifi cations annually and provides online and onsite training. We will utilize the centre and e-learning platform to provide continuous education and upskilling initiatives to ensure our seafarers are wellequipped to meet future requirements and challenges.

As the Philippines and India are our largest seafarer nations, we are also committed to giving back to the communities in which we operate locally, together with our seafarers. We have launched several initiatives focusing on youth education and well-being and touch on these in “Inspire our Children”.

The sense of community and connection lost during the pandemic is slowly being restored as people come together again and reconnect after a long break. In this issue, we highlight some activities that have resumed.