Shipping: a booming industry With high yields, high asset prices and lots of cash, there has never been a better time for the industry. The rising demand for shipping created a demand for the stocks of shipping companies.
There is a great deal of expertise behind a well found ship, or indeed a fleet of them, and the shipping industry offers a good, interesting career in large numbers of areas, in the shipping companies, and elsewhere in the maritime industry infrastructure. Ships have to be filled with cargo, managed efficiently, manned and voyages planned. They are expensive beasts, and their financing is acutely important, as is their insurance and other risk mitigating arrangements.
Shore side careers in the shipping industry might be divided into those which require technical expertise, perhaps obtained actually at sea prior to coming ashore, or with a background in marine engineering or naval architecture, and those in a commercial role. Shore side technical staff within the shipping company might include technical managers and superintendents, who provide the technical back-up for the ships and their crews, arranging repairs and dry-dockings, supervising newbuildings and ensuring that the ships are properly provided with spares and stores. There is likely to be a manpower component here, ensuring that the crews are appointed to the vessels, and the often complex business of travel and visas is properly organised.
Commercial staff will be concerned with the operation of the ships, organising their voyages, and keeping their complex accounts to ensure that freights are collected, disbursements paid and that all is properly accounted for. There will be accountants, professional shipbrokers and people with legal knowledge here in the management team which is making the daily decisions that will direct the voyages of the fleet units.
Traditionally, young people entering the shore side of shipping would have begun as juniors, or apprentices, working in the offices and studying for their qualifications in the evening or day-release schemes. Some large shipping companies do offer well structured training schemes for their employees. Increasingly, colleges and universities are offering courses - undergraduate or post graduate - in maritime business, recognising the need for specialist vocational training at a high level. Typical of these courses might be a BSc in Maritime Business with logistics, or maritime law, others offering a strong grounding in finance or marketing, maritime commercial practice and international trade. Other courses offer specialist education in economics or port management, maritime policy and shipping finance.
It is perhaps a recognition that the shipping industry does have a need for well-educated people in every department, if it is to be successful in a competitive world.
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