Financial Times

Norway team to check seafarer training
A team of officials from Norway will visit the island next month to check the training and certification of Sri Lankan seafarers ahead of a deal between the two governments designed to facilitate the employment of local merchant seamen on Norwegian-flagged ships.

Director of Merchant Shipping Shantha Weerakoon said an agreement between the merchant shipping departments of the two countries is important as it provides a way for Norwegian ship owners to recognize training and certification of Sri Lankan seamen.

The two countries have been having talks on a memorandum of understanding between the Merchant Shipping Division of Sri Lanka's Ministry of Ports and the Norwegian Maritime Directorate.

The MoU will enable Certificates of Competence issued by the Merchant Shipping Division to be recognised by Norwegian ship owners. Although about 26,500 Sri Lankans have received certification as seafarers over the past 30 years only about 12-15,000 are believed to be active and have regular employment.

The agreement is also important for future employment of Sri Lankan seamen as about 40,000 foreign seafarers are employed on Norwegian-flagged ships. Weerakoon said one of the key problems of seafarers finding jobs on board vessels was that trainee seamen had limited opportunities for training at sea since only very few vessels are operated by Sri Lankan ship owners.

"However much we give them training ashore, they need to have sea training to be considered suitable to be employed on board ships," Weerakoon said. "This is where we have difficulties because we don't have enough ships under our flag. Foreign ship owners only want trained seafarers."

This problem could be solved partially if Norwegian ship owners agree to employ a certain number of Sri Lankan seafarers under the agreement between the two governments.

Sri Lankan seafarers also face difficulties in finding employment because there is a surplus of ratings or ordinary seamen worldwide with countries like the Philippines dominating the field, supplying large numbers of trained and experienced people.

Also, Sri Lankan seamen face competition from China and Burma. Sri Lankan ordinary seamen demand around $430 (or about Rs 43,000) a month, compared to about $250-300 for Chinese and Burmese seamen.

However, there is a shortage of, and good demand for, qualified officers, such as deck officers and engineers, worldwide and this is where Sri Lanka can score as the country has a good reputation for training.

But officer cadets also face the problem of not having enough opportunities for training at sea. "We need more cadet sea training berths," said Weerakoon. "Now the training colleges take about 100 cadets annually but they can increase their intake to up to 500 if sea training berths are available."

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