Comprensión oral

My interest in the on-going crewing crisis in the shipping industry dates from the period when I worked at the Singapore Maritime Academy. Essentially, this involved promoting maritime courses and maritime careers for the benefit of secondary school students. As with other developed nations, there seemed to be a lack of potential young people interested in a sea career. Hence, in order to attract more young people into the

industry, particularly the seafaring industry, my task (along with my colleagues) was to promote the maritime courses of the Academy and their potential career paths.

In promoting the courses, my colleagues and I informed the students (and often teachers and parents) about the Singapore maritime sector, its history and its career prospects. This was an exercise in public education (that is, providing information about the significance of the shipping industry in the economy, its significance to the lives of the public and the viability of the careers it offers). In order to make the idea of a maritime and/or seafaring career appeal to students, we also sought to ‘win over’ those who had influence over the career decisions of students, and therefore it was also vital for us to address the teachers and parents.

The difficulty in attracting new talent to a seafaring career could result in the local maritime industry facing a talent gap, especially for shore-side positions (Moreby and Springett, 1990). The lack of young people to replace retiring senior management could also change the local personnel scenario in the maritime industry. Many of these management positions include jobs in shipping management companies, the ship building and repair industry, the off-shore industry, maritime administration and port authority organisations. These positions benefit by being filled by individuals with training and experience as seafarers.

Our interactions with secondary school students revealed that there were a small number of young Singaporeans are interested in a sea career and these enrol at the polytechnic to be trained. However, it was perplexing how maritime companies seemed to lack the enthusiasm to provide sea-berths for maritime training despite there being a supposed seafarer ‘shortage’. The present situation was therefore one where few young Singaporeans are trained for the profession and even fewer have become certified officers. As a result, particular questions have arisen regarding the sustainability of the Singapore maritime industry: Why do companies appear to have a lack of interest in recruiting young Singaporeans? Does their bottom line (that is, profit) have an over-arching importance over the operations of the organization? Does the global availability of alternative seafaring labour affect their decisions for recruitment strategies?

My opportunity to answer these questions came along when I fortuitously stumbled upon the Nippon Fellowship in a newspaper advertisement. It offered the prospect of studying the topic of seafaring labour from a sociological perspective and in an environment conducive to maritime research. Here, the chance to engage in a project that would address the queries above was enormously appealing.

My subsequent choice of Singapore as a location for data collection rested on a combination of historical, economic and personal factors. The maritime industry is one of the key industries in Singapore with a rich heritage. Its success is facilitated to a great extent by the country’s geo-strategic location and natural harbour, this being the primary reason for the founding of the country; the establishment of modern Singapore may be attributed to Sir Stamford Raffles, who signed a treaty in 1819 with the Sultan of Johor to set up a British port of call for its vessels. Singapore prospered as a trading post and continued to flourish in the nineteenth century during the steamship era and the opening of the Suez Canal. It also became a major port of call for merchant ships trading between Europe and East Asia along the vital spice route.

Even today, the success of Singapore’s maritime business is brought about (at least in part) by its strategic location and port facilities. Its maritime industry accounts for

about 7% of the Republic’s gross domestic product and, in terms of flag registry, it is

ranked the 6th largest ship registry in the world with regards to Gross Tonnage (IHS Fairplay, 2010); as of February 2009, the Singapore Shipping Registry consisted of 3,890 vessels with a total tonnage of 44.5 million GT. Of these, about half the tonnage (20.3 million GT) comprised tankers (that is, oil, chemical and liquified gas) and 16.9% (7.5 million GT) were bulk carriers (Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Singapore Registered Ships, 2009). Singapore is also the 10th largest country of beneficial vessel ownership (UNCTAD, 2009). The port of Singapore has further been ranked as the busiest in the world in terms of the shipping tonnage it handles (that is, the total volume of ships handled) since 1986. In 2008, 131,695 vessels arrived in the Singapore port, of which 30% of the tonnage consisted of tankers and 22% were bulk carriers (Maritime and Port Authority of Singapore, Port Statistics, 2009). The above ship arrival and ship registry statistics are significant as they are a reflection of the world fleet situation in terms of the proportion of vessels, where tankers and bulk carriers form the lion's share of the business.

As regards the industry’s shore-based developments, it hosts more than 5,000 maritime companies, these being made up of over 100 international shipping groups, which provide an assortment of maritime products and ancillary services. Singapore is also a venue of choice for many international maritime organisations and associations, such as the International Bunker Industry Association, the International Association of Independent Tanker Owners and the Baltic and International Maritime Council, all of which have set up their headquarters or representative offices in the country. Hence, it is this rich availability of products, services and expertise that has contributed to the

Republic’s status as a global maritime hub.

In addition to historical and geographical influences and the Republic’s status as a

maritime hub, my own familiarity with the local industry was also a key factor in the decision process. As a resident, my local knowledge was an asset in the search for participants. Additionally, industry contacts (in the form of friends and former colleagues) positively influenced my ability to gain access to potential participants. These people were key to ‘getting my foot in the door’ of employer companies and in gaining an amiable introduction to its gate keepers.