MORE cadet scholars are expected to be trained to become significant contributors to the country and its maritime industry as the University of Cebu (UC) inaugurated last Wednesday the UC-NSA building at the UC Lapulapu-Mandaue (UCLM) Campus.
The building houses 38 classrooms, two physical fitness gyms, swimming pools, canteen, recreation area, drafting and plotting rooms, as well as laboratories for physics and chemistry classes. It also houses a computer laboratory with 50 computer units, a Full Mission Bridge Simulator, equipped with Radar/Arpa Simulator software, and an automatic identification system.
Adjacent to the building is a dormitory that has 32 rooms for male and female scholars.
UC’s initial investment for the buildings was P80 million, but UC chairman Augusto Go said the total project cost could very well reach P100 million.
Go is hoping that UC’s partner, the Norwegian Shipowners Association (NSA), will put up more facilities in the building.
Scholarship
Through the NSA Philippines Cadet Project, NSA and UC offer educational scholarship grants to deserving students who want to embark on a career in marine transportation and marine engineering.
With 700 students in UC-Maritime Education Training Center and 300 in UCLM, the partnership project is targeting more than 1,000 graduates every year.
Each scholar, apart from free tuition, will be provided with free board and lodging, textbooks, course materials and equipment, computer-based training, shipboard trips, and 10 to 12 months of shipboard training aboard international-plying NSA vessels while receiving a monthly allowance of at least $450. They are also guaranteed immediate work after graduation.
NSA president Elizabeth Grieg said that the country is important to Norway as a leading supplier of seafarers to Norwegian ships.
NSA has 1,774 ships and 60 mobile offshore units. Its vessels sail with a mixture of over 60 nationalities or about 60,000 seafarers. Grieg said Filipinos account for over 40 percent of NSA work force or at least 24,000 crew members.
Sustain
“It is my sincere hope that the Philippines can sustain and further develop its maritime sector and supply of well-qualified seafarers,” she said in a speech.
First Secretary Siri Maria Midre of the Embassy of Norway said Norway’s strength in maritime education, research and development can assist the Philippine maritime industry.
Trade and Industry Secretary Peter Favila, for his part, noted that Filipino seafarers have shown “considerable potential,” prompting Norway to consider the country as an ideal and reliable source of ship officers and crew members.
He lauded the partnership between UC and NSA, which will “upgrade” the country’s competencies, “considering that by 2012, 45 percent of (ship) senior officers from Europe and the US (United States) will be retiring.”
Favila, who represented President Arroyo, challenged present and future Filipino seafarers “to constantly upgrade (their) skills and knowledge to be truly world-class.”
He said that out of the 7.5 million Filipinos working in 120 countries worldwide, more than 200,000 of them are seafarers who contribute 30 percent to the total annual foreign exchange remittances “sent through formal channels.”
In a press statement, UC pointed out that there were 274,497 seafarers in 2006 or 25.83 percent of the deployed overseas Filipino workers for that year. In the same period, the seafarers account for over $1.9 billion of the total $13.7 billion remittances for the period, which made up 10 percent of the country’s gross domestic product. (NRC)
