Maritime Milestone

PRESS RELEASE

SEYPEC Initiative

Another chapter in the maritime apprenticeship program with 14 new trainees in Cohort Six

Friday 23rd August 2019-  14 young Seychellois are currently embarking on a career in the maritime industry and will soon join the SEYPEC tankers’ crew worldwide. The trainees attended a certificate and ticket giving ceremony today at SEYPEC House in the company of their parent or guardian as well as representatives from SEYPEC and the Seychelles Maritime Academy (SMA).

12 young men and 2 young women will make the trip to the Colombo International Nautical and Engineering College (CINEC) in Sri Lanka, on Monday 26th August 2019 for a 3-month intense training which will open the doors of employment to them on the tankers. They will be accompanied from Seychelles by SEYPEC Crew Manager, Allain Asba.

This Sixth Cohort is yet another thrilling chapter in the ground-breaking initiative taken by SEYPEC in 2014 which aims at building a team of internationally trained and qualified young Seychellois.

The 14 new trainees to be engaged on the Deck and Engine departments of vessels have already undergone a process of pre-training in Seychelles during the past weeks. They were 8 students and 6 students for the Deck Operation Pathway course and the Engine Operation Pathway course respectively followed their basic

Standards of Training, Certification and Watch keeping for Seafarers (STCW) at the Seychelles Maritime Academy (SMA).

The trainees of this Sixth Cohort come from various backgrounds and fields of study and have shown a keen interest to pursue their chosen career as mariners during their pre-training sessions in Seychelles. Over the next 3 months the student’s syllabus will cover both general knowledge relating to the shipping industry, engineering, navigation and extensive workshop practical modules giving them a holistic understanding of all vessel handling skills and duties. This will also better equip them to select their area specialization from either Navigation or Engineering.

‘We fully understand the importance of well-trained seafarers, which is why we are committed to recruiting and training cadets as part of our comprehensive career development program since 2014.’ SEYPEC CEO, Conrad Benoiton stated. ‘We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and competence of our recruits to be international seafarers. A company cannot survive without people and therefore this commitment of welcoming them within the SEYPEC family is all about quantifying the essence of human resourcing values of SEYPEC. Our people own the company, they take care of it. This is why we have this intake of new students to train them and make them become masters of their own destiny.’

The scheme aims at strengthening the employability of young Seychellois by providing them an avenue to pick up vocational skills and at the same time allow them to join the fleet of SEYPEC tankers. As part of the company’s capacity building efforts and vision, it is expected that by 2020 at least one tanker will be manned entirely by a Seychellois crew.

The new batch of the Sixth Cohort will be back in Seychelles on the 02nd November 2019.

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Editor’s Note: