New Perspectives in Science Education

The marine and maritime economic sectors forming the EU's 'blue economy' represent roughly 5.6 million jobs and account for a Gross Value Added (GVA) of €495 billion. The European Commission is seeking to identify and eventually counter bottlenecks and barriers to sustainable growth and to devise the most appropriate policy responses. This initiative will also provide a comprehensive picture of the economic size and employment of all the main marine and maritime sectors in Europe, including emerging sectors with potential high added value and growth perspectives.

Shortage of ship’s officers is one of the main topics discussed in the maritime society. In 2008 International Maritime Organization (IMO) launched campaign “Go to Sea” with aim to attract new entrants to the shipping industry. The worldwide supply of seafarers in 2010 was estimated to be 624,000 officers and 747,000 ratings while the current estimate of worldwide demand for seafarers.

Therefore detailed information about maritime education system and its capability to contribute to seafarers’ pools plays important role for maritime policy decisions at various levels. Quality of studies is a multidimensional and complex phenomenon. Motives of choosing maritime profession and approaches to learning are characteristics of an individual person. Researchers state that similar people choose similar professions, but satisfaction from work, success and stability depend on how the personality matches to the environment. There are the following motivation factors of profession choosing: social, economical, psychological and health. Other scientists explain choosing profession via the satisfaction of need.

The discussed theories should help to understand the factors that determine the solution of profession choosing process. The aim of this project is to create awareness on the state of the maritime industry to educational institutions as well as companies providing recruitment services to both existing seafarers and potential seafaring professionals who currently work in the maritime industry, either combined with a service at sea or as a trainee.

Currently, the topic that should be considered most important is the lack of new and objective information amongst young people on the maritime industry trends, opportunities and possible challenges. Latvian Maritime Academy made research about career education in maritime cluster. The goal was to determine the current and future students of the Latvian Maritime Academy opinions on the future profession they have chosen.