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Experts in the maritime industry have urged government agencies, maritime colleges and maritime stakeholders to provide sea time experience for Nigerian cadets as part of efforts to have professional training onboard ships.
Speaking at the at the 4th edition of “A Day with Nigerian Maritime Students” with the theme, “Beyond Sea Time”, organised by Platforms Communications in Lagos last week, a Master Mariner, Captain Ade Olopoeniyan, said there was need to look for a better ways of providing seatime training for the young cadets to undergo proper training.
Speaking further, he advised the students that the fact remained that most of them would not have the opportunity to have practical training on a ship even though the conference was themed “beyond sea time”.
He said, “I know that a lot of cadets here, when you finish, you will not be able to get that mandatory twelve months on a ship or if the ship is not trading, you are not getting enough practical training. If the ship will just be at anchorage for about six months or nine months, you won’t get any training, you are just on a ship, you are not getting enough experience.
“So, the government agencies that are here, the ship owners, stakeholders even the maritime colleges should begin to think of better ways of sea time training for cadets so that they can have proper practical training onboard ships not just a ship staying at anchorage for twelve months then you come back and you have not learnt anything”.
Olopoeniyan who is also a former President of the Nigerian Association of Master Mariners (NAMMs) informed the students that the sea career is very challenging but very rewarding as well, adding that it is challenging in the sense that by the time one goes to sea after the studies and board ship on his own, there are so many obstacles that one should worry about even as he noted that it needs a lot of dedications, and commitment on the part of the cadets.
“In my own case, I know that when we started, we were eight of us that started the career sea time but only five of us were able to make it. So, you have to be really dedicated, determined that you want to succeed.”
