FUTURE CHALLENGES FOR THE OWNERS
REGARDING RECRUITMENT AND
TRAINING OF OFFICERS
by
Nils Telle
Director Research
NORWEGIAN SHIPOWNERS' ASSOCIATION
1. Introduction
After the second world war Norwegian shipping has changed character and
has developed to a know-how industry. This development has been based on four pillars:
Highly qualified, experienced and motivated officers.
Experienced officers recruited to the shipowners' officers and all
others sectors of the shore based maritime industry.
Specialists educated from the maritime universities available in
abundance.
Close cooperation and relations between the shipping companies and
the maritime research institutes.
In the development of Norwegian shipping the officers have played
perhaps the most vital part, and not only for shipping, but for all parts of our maritime
industry.
In Norway we are proud of our maritime industry, where the shipping
companies are the core or the "main engine". But I think that in our maritime
cluster of competence, the maritime know how is the core, our common denominator, And in
the further development of our industry, our know-how will be our principal strategic
resource.
At the most we had some 46,000 Norwegian seafarers onboard our
international fleet. Today we have some 53,000 seafarers all included, and only 13,300 are
Norwegians. 20,000 comes from the Philippines , - There are two main explanations
the cost difference between the Norwegians and sailors from far East
with the general development in our community it would not have been
possible to man our fleet of some 1,400 ships with only Norwegians.
And our experiences with officers from abroad is generally very good.
In the short run
