AN ANALYSIS OF PROCESS AND DEVELOPMENT OF MYANMAR MARITIME EDUCATION & TRAINING SYSTEM WHICH IMPACTS ON MYANMAR SEAFARER’S EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

Toe Myint

Department of Marine Administration, Yangon, Myanmar

Corresponding Author’s Email and Mobile: toemyint60@gmail.com

ABSTRACT

The development of international trade of each country in the world are mainly based on transportation. In the meantime, to carry out the development of both internal and external business and commerce, it has transported by air transport, road transport, rail transport and water transport. The bulk of goods is transported with the possible lowest cost of transportation by using water transport. So, every country has needed more labour demand than labour supply in the maritime industry.

Therefore, Myanmar is one of the major seafarer supply countries in the world to be able to compete with neighboring seafarer supply countries over the market share of global seafaring market, the role of Myanmar Seafarer Recruitment and Placement Services are of vital important.

This study aims to analyze Myanmar Maritime Education and Training related to people motivation, behavior, value and the process of their communication and relationship between people and organization in maritime industry. Maritime training in organization is very important not only to reduce employee dissatisfaction but also to achieve its goals and objective. This study presented the course of COC and COP, opening in MMU, MMMC and private maritime training schools and have been implemented according to the policy of MET system and STCW convention supported by Department of Marine Administration from the period 2011-12 to 2016-17.

Keywords: Gross National Product, IMO, MMU, MMMC, Sea Transport, Myanmar Seafarer’s Employment

INTRODUCTION

The management area of an organizational development is Man Management, Money Management, Material Management, Method Management, Market Management, Minute Management, Machine Management, Mechanism Management and Management of Philosophy. The basic part of management is the cooperation and coordination of the activities between departments and directing their efforts towards the goals and objectives of the

organization. The essential part of the organizational process is to achieve the goals and objectives, education, training and development.

Myanmar Maritime’s Organizational learning for Seafarers are concerned with how learning in Myanmar Maritime Industry. The concept of a learning which is often associated with that of organizational learning that can discover what is effective by reframing its own experiences and learning from that industry process. Myanmar Maritime Learning is concerned with the development of new knowledge or insights that have the potential to influence Seafarer’s behaviour. Their learning theory examines how in this context individual and team learning can be translated into an organizational resource and is therefore linked to processes of knowledge (Armstrong, 1999).

Myanmar Maritime Educational learning has been defined by O’Neil & Marsick (1994) as a process of coordinated system change, with mechanisms built in for individuals and groups to access, build and use organizational memory, structure and culture to develop long-term organizational capacity.

Myanmar Maritime Educational learning can be characterized as an intricate three-stage process of knowledge acquisition, dissemination and shared implementation. Knowledge may be acquired from direct experience and the experience of other. The philosophy underpinning the learning organization concept as expressed by Garvin (1993) is that learning is an essential ingredient if organizations are to service, that learning at operational, policy and strategic levels needs to be conscious, continuous and integrated and that management is responsible for creating the emotional climate in which all staff can learn continuously.

According to Senge (1990), who first popularized the term, described learning as one where people continually expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of thinking are nurtured where collective aspiration is set free and where people are continually learning how to learn together.

There are five principles of learning and six steps of learning cycle:

1. The need for a powerful and cohering vision of the organization to be communicated and maintained across the workforce is to promote awareness of the need for strategic thinking at all levels.

2. The need to develop strategy in the context of a vision that is not only powerful but also open-ended and unambiguous. This will encourage a search for a wide range rather than a narrow range of strategic options, will promote lateral thinking and will orient the knowledge of creating activities of employees.

3. Within the framework of vision and goals, frequent dialogs, communication and conversations are major facilitators of organizational learning.

4. It is essential to challenge people to re-examine what they take for granted.

5. It is essential to develop a conductive learning and innovation climate.

Therefore, learning has been defined as the process of increasing one’s capacity to act. Learning is the process by which a person acquires new knowledge, skills and capabilities whereas training is one of several responses that can take to promote learning.

So, learning for Myanmar Maritime Education has performed by Department of Marine Administration (DMA) including the activities of seafarer recruitment, seafarer selection, seafarer placement, seafarer training and maintenance of seafarers.

Myanmar Maritime service in long ago had a system of seafarer recruitment by local representative who were registered under Seaman Employment Control Division (SECD). Now, Myanmar is one of the important seafarers supplying country in the world, has many thousands of seafarers and decades of experience in recruiting seafarers for foreign employment (Armstrong, 2003). However, they have direct recruited by foreign ship owners. Private recruitment is opened by private agencies and internal recruited by an independent shipping company according to Maritime Labour Law.

To select our seafarers Myanmar has ratified the Maritime Labour Convention on 25th May 2016 and the 75th State of ratification. The task of a SRPS is to provide qualified and competent crew in accordance with the principal shipping companies’ requirements for employment. So, the Standard Operation Procedure (SOP) of SRPS in Myanmar is used generally the same with all over the world’s maritime industry. To recruit and select Myanmar seafarers they are used for shipping new media, shipping job recruitment websites and widely-used social media. The SRPS are needed to fill the crew application before starting their crew selecting procedures.

After selecting their seafarers, the crew members have passed a medical check-up and took medical examination by qualified doctor. They need enough knowledge of English to carry out their work safely and need to receive the knowledge of ISM Code. Then, before replacement of the seafarers in the shipping industry, they have trained their selected seafarers to know the knowledges including orders relating to safety, navigation, preventing, pollution and protecting the shipping environment.

To replace and place their seafarers in the shipping industry market, they have trained by the Myanmar Maritime University (MMU) and Myanmar Mercantile Marine College (MMMC) and controlled by the Department of Marine Administration, providing STCW training programme. Local SRPS companies in Myanmar, must have a regular contact with the Department of Marine Administration (DMA) to perform the following activities:

• To register newly contracted principal shipping company under DMA.

• To make changes to register vessel list.

• To apply departure document for on signing seafarer by online departure system.

• To apply recommendation letter for visa application by online system.

• To apply for COC and COP verification.

The Department of Marine Administration (DMA) continuously inspect and monitors the performance and activities of SRPS companies. It is also responsible for the annual inspection to check Quality Management System (QMS) of SRPS companies whether they are operated in accordance with Maritime Labour Convention, 2006. All Seafarers Recruitment and Placement Service must follow the regulation 1.4 of Maritime Labor Convention, 2006 and all local SRPS companies should maintain a good relationship with trade unions and federations including Myanmar Seamen’s Federation, Myanmar Maritime Trade Union Federation, Myanmar Maritime Worker’s Federation, Independent Federation of Myanmar Seafarers, and Myanmar Seafarer Employment Service Federation. Myanmar has also ratified the STCW standard since 1988 and is now on the IMO, STCW “White List”. All SRPS companies are required to verify qualifications and documentation for each seafarer to meet with STCW regulations and standards.

Research Objectives

The objectives of Myanmar Maritime Education and Training are as follows:

1. To analyze the provision as International Maritime Organization (IMO), STCW Convention and the Maritime Education and Training policy.

2. To explore the condition of training method including the control system, curriculums, teaching aids to provide maritime training center, Myanmar Maritime University (MMU), and Myanmar Mercantile Marine College (MMMC).

3. To investigate the importance of maritime education and training in Myanmar.

4. To identify the challenges face in the maritime education and training programmes in Myanmar.

5. To study the importance of productivity enhancement of maritime education and training in Myanmar.

6. To evaluate the opportunities for employment in international shipping, competent seafarers who were learning in accordance with the policy of Maritime Education and Training Centers in Private Maritime Training Centers and Schools.

7. To understand the perception of young learners about shipping industry in Myanmar and the world.

RESULTS & DISCUSSION

Problem Statement in Myanmar Maritime Education Training

According to the year 2000 research results, there was a shortage of 16,000 officers in maritime markets and, predictions for 2010, indicated that there is a shortage of 46,000 officers at maritime industry. Research results indicated that current labour market of seafarers has a significant shortage of senior officers that are educated and well-trained.

This survey also indicates that this problem is caused by two factors. First factor is quality of maritime education training system and second factor is lack of interest for navigation. So, their job in international labour market of seafarers, demand and supply are not equal balance. Demand of quality seafarers are more than supply. But Myanmar seafarers were very difficult

to serve on vessels of foreign shipping companies because of specification of qualification. The Myanmar Maritime Educational Learning Cycle is shown in figure 1.

Figure 1: The Myanmar Maritime Educational Learning

Requirements for quality seafarers must keep updating of:

1. advancement of navigational technology,

2. development of maritime administration system, and

3. higher standard in maritime safety, security and marine environment protection.

These requirements are varied in the International Maritime Organization (IMO) and Standard of Training, Certification and Watch-keeping for Seafarers (STCW).

Being a member of IMO’s, Myanmar follows the conventions of IMO and STCW. It is a very important convention not only international seafarers but also Myanmar Maritime Labours. So, Department of Marine Administration (DMA), the Ministry of Transport and Communication managed planning, implementing of these activities. This department, DMA, organized the maritime education and training and has been controlling the Maritime Education and Training system according to the guidance of IMO and STCW.

Therefore, Myanmar Maritime University (MMU) and Myanmar Mercantile Marine College (MMMC) have taught them and provided Diploma holding seafarers and Degree holding seafarers. All seafarers can study a lot of maritime knowledge in there. Also, their Private Maritime Schools are permitted and give them Certificate of Competency (COC) courses and Certificate of Proficiency (COP) courses to reduce labour shortage of maritime industry.

Today, the shipping industry in the world is carrying 90 percent of world trade volume and has also suffered heavily, due to its close relationship with international trade and world economy. Therefore, the challenges of maritime education and training changes for the labor markets as can now be seen “the ships-owner oriented market” instead of “seafarer-oriented market”. More and more seafarers have to compete with other for a job onboard. Therefore, the maritime education and training in Myanmar including the scale, teaching curriculum and model for both cadet program and seafarers update training is required to be adjusted accordingly to provide better services for the shipping industry. Many reasons for the challenges at STCW consist of the fast development of world shipping industry, more applications of new maritime technology onboard, sticker standards in maritime safety and pollution prevention, and more functions of human factors in maritime technical operation (Torrington et al., 2014).

The main topics of up to date STCW Convention are as the following:

• To improve the competency standard for rating and to update the requirements and standards for certification;

• To introduce a three-level maritime security training system;

• To revise the training requirements for master, chief officers and officers;

• To set-up higher standards for maritime education and training of seafarers engaging in special cargo transportation in the world;

• To achieve minimum requirements for the maritime education and training qualifications of sea masters and officers-in-charge of a navigation watch on offshore supply vessels.

Seafaring profession is a specialized profession which has to meet the requirements of both shipowners and international maritime conventions. Therefore, MMU, MMMC, DMA and other maritime schools try to supply quality seafarers including good experiences onboard, excellence in seamanship, computer operation, English languages, ship management, interpersonal communication, professional virtues and commitment.

Myanmar Maritime Education and Training programme is now designed for the purpose of STCW certificate, intensive skills, advanced maritime operation and foreign language proficiency because of shipping industry is growing very fast and has huge demand at the same time. However, many shipping operations, particularly high-level shipping operations, are done in other regions of the world rather than in Myanmar. Myanmar Maritime Education and Training institutions will be able to serve better for the international maritime society. The growth of shipping industry relies on excellent maritime people in both Myanmar and in the world by keeping it energy saving, higher efficiency, low-cost and higher quality.

CONCLUSION

There are a lot of ways of studying the maritime education and training programmes and various teaching theories provide it, but essentially it is a relationship through IMO and STCW influences.

There are various factors with underline the effectiveness of maritime education and training in the shipping organization. This issue in the Myanmar Maritime Education and Training has been measured based on psychographic study of the seafarers who are undergoing the onboard courses. Factor analysis of maritime education and training has been used to identify a small number of psychographic factors that may be used to represent relationships among set of interrelated factors. These factors are extracted and loaded by using Principle Component Analysis. The respondents have selected the sea career main because of attractive remuneration, attractive life style, global exposure, frequent visits to foreign countries, long vacation and continuous employment. It is evident from the analysis of maritime education and training factors.

Therefore, maritime industry is the corner stone of international trade and among the main key- factors of maritime education and training programmes which are driving globalization and competitiveness. As the maritime industry competes with other industries, maritime education and training will need to address how best these students learn and sustain in the maritime field. This is because of the reason that the maritime seafarers are difficult at sea that employees who work on the shore. The productivity of Myanmar Maritime Education and Training can further be improved if the seafarers are provided with real training on board the training ships in addition to simulator training.

SCOPE AND LIMITATION OF THE STUDY

This paper presents the course of COC and COP opening on MMU, MMMC, private maritime training schools and center have been implemented according to the policy of Maritime Education and Training System and STCW Convention supported by Myanmar Authorities. Especially, job placement condition and promotion achievement condition of Myanmar seafarers graduate from those courses between fiscal year of 2011-12 to 2016-17.

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