Merchant Marine Academies – Production bases for professionally highly trained officers

Greece as a naval nation could have highly prestigious and internationally competitive Merchant Marine Academies and be a base for the production of highly trained officers, who will meet the needs not only of Greek-owned shipping but also beyond. Instead, despite the improvements of recent years with the contribution of the Greek shipping community, it only has schools with serious operational problems.

The fragmented approach and the lack of long-term strategic planning is one of the reasons for the delays recorded in the development of a modern naval training, according to Greek shipping agents. A typical example of a piecemeal approach is the intention of the Ministry of Shipping to establish a School of Engineering, on Kalymnos, while at the same time the Captains School already operating there in recent years is facing serious problems.

The establishment of Merchant Marine Academies should be part of a coherent strategic plan for the development of the entire maritime education system in our country, and not be based on piecemeal initiatives with strong local characteristics and problematic viability, said the Hellenic Shipowners’ Association to the Ministry of Shipping, on the occasion of the Maritime Education Council meeting at the end of November, for the approval of the establishment of the new School.

The study

At the same time, the Hellenic Shipowners’ Association is seeking a constructive discussion and co-operation on the overall strategic plan for maritime education, a plan which appears to be under preparation by the Ministry of Shipping. It is pointed out that an intervention at three levels was recently announced with the aim of upgrading the operation of the Merchant Marine Academies.

The first level is the creation of a comprehensive plan for the reform of maritime education which will be based on a study carried out by the Eugenides Foundation. The aim is to present a new framework law for the maritime education of the future by the end of the year. The shipping community is waiting for the start of the dialogue for the preparation of the draft law, based on the study of the institution, which has already been handed over to the ministry.

The second front is the digital transformation of the Public Merchant Marine Schools through 11 digital interventions in order to realize the complete digitization of the procedures of the secretariat, the electronic student card, the digital management curriculum by teachers, as well as the digitization of the physical archive of the faculties. A working group has also been set up with the participation of administrators and teachers, for the creation of digital educational material, as well as the creation of an educator training platform.

The third front is the upgrading of building infrastructure by securing resources of 200 million euros from the NSRF 2021-2027. The assistance of the Hellenic Shipowners’ Association and many other donors of the shipping family, which aim at the completion of a series of building damage-restoration projects in all schools, is also crucial for the upgrade of the building infrastructure.

Education today

To date, public naval training is provided by the eleven Merchant Marine Academies (AEN) and the rescue schools in Aspropyrgos and Macedonia, and on Oinousses island.

In any case, Greece could, and owes it to its naval tradition, be a “cradle” for the production of highly trained officers, who will meet the needs not only of Greek-owned shipping but also more broadly, the president of the Hellenic Shipowners’ Association Theodoros Veniamis has said in the past.

In order to achieve this, however, the sources of production of officers must be expanded through the increase of the capacity of the naval academies, but also the parallel operation of private schools. Positively, however, the change of the legal framework for the graduates of Naval Vocational High Schools is heading in the same direction, through which these graduates are regaining the right to be promoted to the first rank of captain and engineer.