IMPROVING THE EGYPTIAN SEAFARERS’ IMAGE IN THE INTERNATIONAL SEAFARERS’ MARKET

The Purpose of this paper is to find the right way to improve the Egyptian seafarer’s image in the international seafarers market in order to reduce the number of the unemployed Egyptian seafarers and unemployed fresh graduates. As per Baltic and International Maritime Council BIMCO, Global Shipping market suffering from shortage of the qualified seafarers globally which considered as a good chance for the Egyptian seafarers to fill in part of that shortage before it gets fully filled and makes the problem of the unemployed Egyptian seafarers more complicated. The international seafarers’ market need qualified seafarers not only certified seafarers. There is a big difference between the requirements of the international seafarers market and the requirements of the seafarers’ certificate, the real challenge is how to match between the requirements of the international seafarers market and the requirements for issuing the seafarers certificates in order to introduce qualified Egyptian seafarers who are able to compete in the international seafarers’ market. During this paper we did face to face interviews with some Egyptians seafarers, phone interviews with some international shipping companies to reveal the real criteria upon which they choose their crew. At the end it was concluded that Government, Maritime Institute and Seafarers have to exert more efforts to improve the Egyptian seafarer’s image in the international seafarers’ market.