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| File Photo: President of NAMM, Capt. Tajudeen Alao |
Seafarer mentorship is key to a complete training required for building competence.
President of the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners, Capt. Tajudeen Alao, who spoke on the need for improving training of seafarers, said every young seafarer must have a competent mentor to guide him/her through years of training.
He, however, noted the availability of competent and experienced hands, but that they must be remunerated adequately. And when that is not the case, “the experienced hands will prefer to work as mooring masters than being lecturers.”
Training
Capt. Alao charges Nigeria on the need for
a holistic commitment to seafarer training, because the competence is tested on
global platforms, where the most-suitably qualified applicant gets the job.
Still considering a ‘back –to- the- basics’
element, Alao wants adequate review and
value addition for the Nigerian Seafarer Development Programme (NSDP)
initiative, when cadets get seatime training , else the programme would be seen
to have failed.
A well-rounded training for seafarers must
incorporate mentoring to ensure that cadets go through the rudiments under the
watch of an experienced mariner who knows what the cadet must do at each time.
He said: “Training had been done in the past,
and it was successful. It was never a crash programme. It was planned,
monitored and mentored and it was successful. Unfortunately, Nigeria stopped
the training because of paucity of funds.
“Those who went privately to do it,
government did not support them. There are still many people out there who went
that way and all they needed was for support to continue or complete.
“So many people have been sent to school,
but their future is uncertain, because nowhere to serve and nowhere to work.
Vanishing
fleets?
“Yes, our fleets are not increasing, rather
they are vanishing,” Capt. Alao added. “The coastal tankers are no more there,
the West African trade liners are not there, the international liners are non-existent.
“What we have is oil and gas, and these
come in various kinds of ships with peculiarities. So, training in specialised
way is expensive and the boys cannot go abroad to do them, and the government
is not doing anything to have these things on ground.”
Capt. Alao thinks that the big problem to
deal with is the dearth of competent lecturers, those who have the requisite knowledge
and practical experience.
“Getting
it right with the experienced lecturers for the cadets today is very important,
if we are expecting to get much tomorrow,” he said.
What
about mentorship for seafarers?
In the master mariner’s view: “Government
must identify the professionals who have the teaching ability and enlist them,
so the young cadets can be attached to them for monitoring of their progress
and have their record.
“So, somebody going to fake seatime and
period in school will not be possible. Somebody in his house can have up to 30
students that he is mentoring. And the surveyors must be gazetted,
non-exclusive surveyors, same way. They are the ones to take on the responsibility
of these young ones.
Inclusiveness
of female cadets
“The issue of inclusiveness for female cadets
have been addressed globally, and I think that is settled,” the master mariner
said, as there are several female captains and other military officers.
The responsibility now, is for provision to
be made on-board ships to cater for the peculiar nature of women. “It is just
like you have to consider pedestrians, physically challenged when you are building
roads or public toilets. Any ship we build now, provision for female coming on
board should be included because it is problematic without that.”
“The issues to be addressed are becoming
clearer,” Capt. Alao said, “as some ships have jobs, but no competent hands to
man them.”