Seafaring officers are no sooner graduating from their cadetships than being snapped up by maritime companies keen to fill gaps in their workforces. Take for example, recent graduates of the Deck and Engine cadetship programmes of Pacific Towing (PacTow) and Consort Express Lines (Consort). Many of these new ‘Officers of the Watch’ secured employment within one month of their graduation.
The Coastal Shipowners Association confirms that PNG is experiencing a real shortage of maritime professionals, especially when it comes to both junior and senior officers. “This is why cadetship programmes are so important, because they produce new seafaring professionals not only for the companies that develop and run them but for PNG’s broader maritime sector” says Neil Papenfus, General Manager of Pacific Towing.
One example of a programme that has produced new officers who have gone on to work for multiple maritime organisations is PacTow’s ‘Women in Maritime’ programme. Graduating Officers of the Watch (Deck and Engine) have secured employment with programme partner Consort, as well as with Kute Shipping, Lutheran Shipping, P&O, TWL, and YWAM Medical Ships.
Eunice Tuwe (Officer of the Watch – Deck), is one of the young women who graduated from the Women in Maritime programme only last December and were then recruited almost immediately. Tuwe is now working for PNG’s biggest coastal shipping company, Consort. Tuwe also completed some of her practical ‘at sea’ training on Consort vessels.
“It’s been my dream to work at sea” says Tuwe. “I’m grateful to lots of people who’ve helped this dream come true - my family, my lecturers at PNGMC, various members of crew, PacTow, Aus Awards, and of course Consort. I’m also very proud to join the other women who graduated before me who are helping build a bigger and better maritime industry in PNG.”
Also growing and strengthening PNG’s maritime industry are 31 Officers of the Watch who have come through Consort’s cadetship programme which was launched in 2020. Consort have employed 12 of their programme’s graduates with the remainder taking up a range of opportunities with other PNG shippers.
Cadetship programmes are proving their worth across PNG’s maritime sector as the officers they produce are becoming increasingly indispensable to operations. One of PacTow’s most lauded graduates from another of its programmes is Tug Master Emmanuel Simoi. Within just two and a half years of completing his training, Simoi was awarded the command of one of PacTow’s Azimuth Stern Drive (ASD) tugs (‘Werra’) and has been charged with assisting super-sized suezmax fuel tankers in Port Moresby’s Fairfax Harbour.
“The shortage of seafaring professionals in PNG is being compounded by an upswing in demand for them” says Antony Riley, General Manager of Consort Express Lines. “Businesses, particularly those linked to major developments such as the Papua LNG project need more vessels – especially for project cargo – and these vessels require more seafarers. As such, our home-grown cadets and the programmes that produce them have never been more important.”
Together, Consort and PacTow have offered young Papua New Guineans a further 20 maritime cadetship scholarships in 2024. Other organisations with maritime cadetship programmes include P&O and PNG Ports Corporation. Gulf Maritime Services (GMS), a new joint venture between Steamships, GFS, and the Gulf Provincial Government, have also announced that they too will be offering cadetships.
