Nautical training systems and the occupational behaviour of seamen: the Israeli experience

One of the most serious and persisting problems confronting the shipping companies of all the developed maritime nations is the retention of seafarers who will yield long periods of service at sea. Turnover and wastage involves considerable expenses in recruiting and training of new seafarers. One of the means for the recruitment and retention of seafarers is the vocational nautical school system. In contrast to general education, where the objectives are diffuse, vocational institutions have very specific functions. Their achievements are therefore generally measured by means of the relative number of graduates who enter and remain in the industry for which they were trained. The present study examines the problem of the commitment to the maritime occupation of graduates of nautical schools in Israel in recent years, and it attempts to evaluate nautical education by examining the proportion of graduates who actually entered the maritime occupation and the extent of their stability at sea. No attempt is made to evaluate the economic efficiency of the nautical training system.