e2i, SMOU and Shipping Companies Unite

Gaining recognition from major industry players, the first two batches of the Tripartite Nautical Training Award (TNTA) programme have seen some 30 Singaporean cadets trained and the pioneer cohort of 19 cadets graduating from their pre-sea training phase on 2 July 2010 at Orchard Hotel.

In order for the shipping community to fully exploit the benefits of this initiative, shipping and Collective Agreement (CA) companies were invited to learn about the programme and encouraged to offer their ardent support for the programme’s third batch of potential recruits.

Jointly organised by e2i and SMOU, the dialogue session at the e2i building on 30 July saw 30 representatives from companies including Trademar Pte Ltd, Wallenius Marine Singapore Pte Ltd, Neptune Shipmanagement Services Pte Ltd, and NYK Shipmanagement Pte Ltd participating in the

dialogue.

A welcome address by Mr Thomas Tay, General Secretary of SMOU, was followed by a brief on the TNTA initiative by e2i which included details on TNTA programme’s Pre-Sea Nautical Training and syllabus as well as progress updates on the first and second batches of cadets by Wavelink Institute.

Mr Tay, Mr Ang Hin Kee, CEO of e2i (Employment and Employability Institute) and Mr Bernard Song,

General Manager of Wavelink Institute rounded up the trio of panellists for the dialogue session.

Issues raised included recruitment strategies; giving Singaporeans opportunities to pursue

seafaring careers by urging shipping companies to provide training berths; exploring the feasibility

of encouraging women to join the programme as well as merit-based incentive schemes to encourage cadets to excel at company and industrial levels.

Indeed, the successful launch of the TNTA has been recognised as an important milestone in the training of Singaporean seafarers and a small step in the direction of addressing the global shortage of seafaring officers.

The Singapore Workforce Development Agency (WDA) and SMOU have jointly invested S$2.4 million into training young Singaporeans as deck officers for Singapore’s shipping industry, of which successful graduates will obtain COC Class 3 Deck Officer qualifications from the Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore (MPA).