¡¡¡¡With the continued rise of shipping pushed on by the fast development of the global economy, shortages of senior crew members and concerns about poor crew quality have become new problems affecting further progress. Ways to train quality crews and quickly therefore understandably become the main topics of discussion of the "China Crew Development Meeting" held on April 16 as well as the Shenzhen Maritime Forum 2008 that followed.

¡¡¡¡Lack of professionals and disorder of personnel flow

¡¡¡¡According to International Crew Research Centre, against the serious over-supply of ordinary seafarers, as many as 27,000 senior seamen will be needed around the world by 2015, exposing thus a serious imbalance in the industry' s crew structure.
¡¡¡¡Liu Gongchen, Standing Deputy Director of the Maritime Administration of the Ministry of Communications, said, quite in spite of ship safety and anti-pollution standards being continually improved, and equipment becoming more and more sophisticated, the rate of marine accidents has not yet plummeted as expected, and above 85% of accidents are, quite regretfully, related to the so-called human factor.
¡¡¡¡As for personnel drains, Shen Jie, Director of the Board and Vice General Manager of China Shipping International Ship Management Co., Ltd. lamented, "We choose more than 1,000 university graduates every year, but about 200 of them won' t stay on until the end of the year for various reasons.
¡¡¡¡Today, under the backdrop of a socialist market economy, much change has taken place in the crew market. With the number continuing to grow, there has been born a greater frequency of personnel flow. Qin Jiangping, Director of the Dept. of Crew Management of COSCO, said it appears that the sense of vocation and honour is fading fast with seamen of different ranks, accompanied by an obvious drop in their social position, which has in one way or another led to a swarm off ships towards the shore.

¡¡¡¡Widening the employment channel

¡¡¡¡The situation calls for an urgent personnel replacement and removal of the crew structure imbalance. Much attention, however, should be given to the dialectic relationship of speed and quality in personnel development, said Gao Hongfeng, Vice Minister of Transport, in clarifying his view on the subject.
¡¡¡¡The fact is that the Ministry of Transport had already issued an official document on the employment and training of non-maritime university graduates in 2006, allowing those with a technology background to join the crew forces after one year's training. Currently, such a program is being offered at 14 maritime higher learning institutes across the country to 4,940 people every year, and all of the first set of trainees have been assigned work.
¡¡¡¡Gao Hongfeng pointed out that macro control should be brought into full play in crew development as well as in active adjustment and efficient guidance of the crew market to contribute to the set-up of a complete and effective operation system. Moreover, traditional concepts should be changed with the continual maturity of the market economy, and the efforts of enterprises should also be enlisted in this cause under the principle of "all trainees and benefits to the developers".

¡¡¡¡Improve crew quality

¡¡¡¡How can we improve general crew quality?
¡¡¡¡According to Liu Gongchen, from now on less attention will be given to education background than experience, and more attention to practice than exam results. Moreover, a full crew registration system will be installed under which carriers and support service institutes are required to file information on individual crew members'  shipboard experience with related government authorities, with the Captain required to fill in such information accurately and promptly.
¡¡¡¡Regarding job promotion, it was learned that too short a period of time was required in the past in certain areas.
¡¡¡¡For instance, it took just twelve months for the third master to be promoted to the second master, and the second to captain, which has resulted in only a skimpy understanding of the positions they held in the process of career growth and a straight drop in operation quality. Consequently, the "Ten Measures on Crew Development'  released by the Ministry of Transport has lengthened shipboard work experience more appropriately from 12 months to 18 months for promotion from the third to the second master.

¡¡¡¡Improve crew quality

¡¡¡¡As for the talent drain, Qin Jiangping believes it has to do with the non-existence of fair market competition and effective labour protection.
¡¡¡¡The meeting confirmed the position of enterprises as the major market player and suggests greater freedom for them in personnel cultivation. Mr. Qin said under the current circumstances, carriers should try to attract their employees for long-term stay with good and considerate care according to the law of market economy, including giving individualised treatment and appropriate stimulation. And China, he said, should do more to enhance the crew's sense of honour and social position so as to make them more willing to work onboard the ships.
¡¡¡¡Meantime, it is also hoped that meetings should be organised periodically by government authorities for active probes into the law of crew development under the new conditions of a market economy, to establish a crew strategy research mechanism and to create an environment of fair competition in order to safeguard the fundamental interests of crews. Li Shanmin, Chairman of the Crew Committee of China Shipowners' Association thinks designing a series of rules controlling personnel flow based on those developed for the pilots may help achieve the purpose. Gao Hongfeng also stressed that, regardless which ways, the flow of crews must be well regulated, and it is certainly best to bring the order of personnel flow under an efficient and long-term mechanism.