Merchant Navy Training Board - Strategic Plan

January 2023

Merchant Navy Training BoardStrategic Plan

RMT response

Key points

1. We are encouraged by the MNTB’s development of key objectives, including securing employment and skills for UK seafarers in a global market. The strategy would be strengthened by a strategic goal to increase Ratings training which would put it on an equal footing with Cadet training.

2. The Maritime Skills Commission’s current review of barriers to Ratings training gives the MNTB the chance, in partnership with the trade unions, to take the lead on Ratings and Cadet training in the UK.

3. Improved data collection to detail Ratings training and break down which sectors are training Ratings and in what number. This would enable the MNTB and the unions to campaign and lobby for action in specific sectors, and to promote successful models of Ratings training. The analysis of Tonnage tax data should be included in this.

4. MNTB should work closely with the MCA. For example, to survey STCW training requirements to identify training gaps and new skills required by Ratings as part of decarbonisation and digitalisation in the shipping industry.

5. Clear training pathways for Ratings to move from Catering/OBS to Deck and Engine positions in the Rating complement.

6. Create and fill the post of Ratings Ambassador in the Careers at Sea project to promote a rewarding culture of merchant navy skills and employment.

7. Lobbying work with Government to ensure that public contracts for building new merchant ships include targets for training apprentice Ratings in each department.

8. A condition of MNTB Main Board membership should be a commitment to support training and apprenticeships for UK resident Ratings.

9. The Maritime Skills Commission’s ‘Skills for Green Jobs’ project, emerging STCW standards and internationally recognised qualifications covering seafarer occupations in the offshore energy sector all point to the need for a just transition dimension to the MNTB strategy.

10. Better use can be made of collective bargaining agreements to mandate targets for training Ratings and Cadets on vessels servicing the UK economy.

Increasing Ratings Training

There were 9,040 UK resident Ratings work on UK Chamber of Shipping vessels as of June 2021. This is a 25% fall since 2018, although the churn in UK Chamber membership makes it harder to record accurate figures and trends. New figures will be published by the DfT next month. They are unlikely to record increases in training or employment for UK resident Ratings, in light of P&O Ferries actions on 17 March 2022.

UK Ratings are ageing and there are wider problems with the culture of maritime recruitment which undermines training, employment and skills for this section of the seafarer population. An RMT survey of over 400 Ratings, conducted in February 2022, found that:

 Over 60% of Ratings (all departments) are 45 years or older.

 UK Ratings work in Deck (46%), Catering (25%), Engine (13%) and OBS (10%) roles.

 Nearly 60% of Ratings at work today were trained in the twentieth century (when public subsidy for Ratings training was more widely and easily available).

 Over 40% of Ratings think their employer would like to replace them with cheaper foreign crew rather than train local crew to backfill roles.

Some modest progress was made in delivering Ratings apprenticeships through the tri-partite Maritime Trailblazer Apprenticeship Working Group, which began work in 2014. However, only 210 able seafarer (Deck) Rating Apprenticeships were started between 2018 and 2021. Previous reports produced for the Government stated that if UK seafarers were to meet forecast increases in demand for deck Ratings, 470 would need to be trained everyyear to 2026. This has clearly not happened and has put UK Ratings at a further disadvantage in a global labour market.

We are under no illusions over the scale of the task at hand. As the DfT survey of young people’s perception of working in the maritime sector found in 2021, 51% of 16-24 year olds said that they knew ‘almost nothing’ about what people working in the maritime sector actually do. That rose to 86% amongst young people from black/black British communities.1

The gap between demand and supply for engine, electro-technical and general purpose Ratings also needs to be properly assessed, although BIMCO figures for the global seafarer workforce found a strong increase (18.5%) in the number of STCW qualified Ratings employed in the industry compared to 2015.

Despite the agreement of standards and distribution of a Maritime Caterer apprenticeship, no FE college currently offers the Maritime Caterer apprenticeship, despite shortages in Cook/Chef position in all sectors of shipping. 1

Similarly, the workboat sector of the offshore energy sector is experiencing persistent shortages of skilled seafarers, despite the existence of a Workboat apprenticeship.

And where flexibility has been shown, through Scotland’s Modern Apprenticeship framework for example, take up (outside publicly owned ferry services) is disappointing.

MNTB should also take the initiative to close gaps in maritime apprenticeships, including in Wales and addressing disparities in the cost of different Rating qualifications.

Prior to the pandemic, the Government’s SeafarerProjectionsReviewestimated in 2016 that demand in the UK shipping industry for non-hospitality and hospitality Ratings is forecast to grow 7% (2,000) and 35% (21,000) respectively by 2026. This assumed exponential growth in the international cruise sector which has been significantly impacted by the Covid-19 pandemic.

However, the report’s forecast of acute shortages in the supply of deck, electrotechnical and general purpose Ratings to the UK shipping industry by 2026 remain accurate. In fact, we may already have reached that position, judging from the growing number of ad hoc requests the union is receiving from employers across different sectors for assistance in filling Ratings vacancies.

The Government have stated in the Maritime Growth Study and the Maritime 2050 Strategy that they support training Ratings through apprenticeships, rather than through the SMarT scheme. A Ratings Apprenticeship strategy, developed with RMT has stalled in recent years but this must be resurrected and should be a feature of the MNTB’s strategic plan to increase the number and diversity of trainee Ratings. Ultimately, we are confident that the MNTB shares the RMT’s aim for quality and standardised training for Ratings in the UK across all class of ship.

Maritime Skills Commission – Ratings Review

The Maritime Skills Commission’s Review of Barriers to Ratings Training2 is underway and will report to the Shipping Minister in March. The review was commissioned in response to the efforts of the RMT to highlight the lack of training opportunities for UK Ratings and the socio-economic instability which results from this.

RMT is working with the consultants carrying out this review and we are confident that the MNTB will be in a good position to act on its recommendations. This would not only take the form of lobbying government but, perhaps more importantly, the MNTB would be the ideal forum for employers across all sectors to work with the RMT to address what is a core workforce planning issue.

The MSC review is a major opportunity to increase Rating apprentices, just as its existing work on Cadets is a major boost to recruitment and training for the future cohort of UK Officers. We welcome this.

2 https://www.maritimeuk.org/priorities/people/skills-commission/projects/ratings-review/

The MSC Review will also provide a fuller appreciation of the availability and cost of training for Ratings jobs. Recommendations on removing barriers and increasing these opportunities will be a game changer for Ratings training. The MNTB’s strategy for Ratings should also be informed by the MSC review.

For example, the development of an Onboard Services apprenticeship to give aspiring individuals a clear guarantee of syllabus based progression. This would also give employers in the cruise industry a more effective recruitment tool in the UK and training providers the confidence to run Ratings training courses.

Data collection

The only official data available on Ratings training is provided by UK Chamber members to the DfT. This appears as apprenticeship figures in the UK Seafarer Statistics series.

The MCA’s role in providing more data to industry on employment, training and new starters in Ratings grades could be expanded. ENG1 statistics and EDH Certification should be better used to map the number and location of Ratings, and how long they have served in the industry in specific roles.

Tonnage Tax training data is also something which could be used, anonymously to monitor developments in the use of the option to train Ratings as part of a participating employer’s minimum training commitment, under which company groups have the option to recruit and train three Able Seafarer ratings each year in place of one officer trainee. This has been in place for eight years but has only resulted in around 40 Ratings being trained but the MNTB must acknowledge the strategic importance of the Tonnage Tax to Ratings training.

Maritime & Coastguard Agency

The role of the MCA in seafarer training and administration of the Support for Maritime Training scheme is well understood. MNTB should seek to work more closely with MCA in areas of seafarer training that are subject to change at international level, particularly the IMO STCW Convention.

The MCA’s May 2021 survey of navigation, engineering and electro-technical competencies in the STCW3 is a useful template for assessing gaps and future needs in the core competencies required by trainee Ratings, especially in deck and engine roles.

We support the proposal to create a Memorandum of Understanding between the MCA and the MNTB. This should include the monitoring and development of Ratings training and certification, which is an area of overlap between the two organisations.

Clear training pathways between Rating Grades

Too often, Ratings at work today are stuck in the OBS or Catering grade. They may not wish to undergo conversion training to qualify as an Officer but there is no formal pathway within Ratings grades. For example, a number of members have been working in the catering department of a major ferry operator and is seeking to train to work as an Engine Rating. The employer is short of Engine Ratings but there is no formal pathway for this sort of training conversion, and the industry takes a case by case approach, as advised by the MCA.

MSN 1862 (Deck Ratings) and MSN 1863 (Engine Ratings) could be amended to include formal pathways for conversion from other Ratings grades. This would demonstrate the potential for career progression to new recruits to the industry and is consistent with the Government’s development of Royal Navy to Merchant Navy conversion training under the SMarT scheme.

Careers at Sea – Ratings Ambassador

We support the MNTB’s Careers at Sea initiative but seek a greater role for ratings within this campaign. In particular, Ratings Ambassadors are a missing component. This should be filled by Ratings who work in the industry today, through agreement with the employer for paid time off to fulfil this vitally important role. For young people at school and in FE colleges, this visible connection to a career at sea would drive up recruitment and employment levels, especially in our maritime towns and cities. The aim should be for a Ratings Ambassador to work one week per year, in England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland.

This would also be in line with the recommendations of the DfT’s research, published in 20214 into how young people in the UK view careers in maritime and aviation. The DfT recommended that:

“Careersfairsandvisitsfromindustryprofessionalspresentthemosteffective opportunitiesforraisingawarenessofAviationandMaritimecareers.” 5

Public contracts

The MNTB strategy should also include core lobbying demands around public contracts for new builds and refurbished vessels in the shipping industry. Ministry of Defence contracts for three new Royal Fleet Auxiliary Fleet Solid Support vessels and a new sub-sea surveillance vessels will benefit maritime security, as will any new sea-lift vessels to replace the current Foreland Shipping fleet.

A condition of operating these publicly procured vessels should be the training of a minimum number of UK resident Ratings. This would be great strategic value to the MNTB, not to mention UK seafarers and our maritime security.

MNTB Main Board

4 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/aviation-and-maritime-careers-young-peoplesperceptions

5 Ibid Pg 16-17.

We note that the strategy is also looking at composition of the MNTB Main Board. RMT recommend that MNTB Main Board members provide a statement of support for training UK resident Ratings to work in all sectors of the shipping industry.

Just Transition

The creation of ‘green shipping’ corridors and the ‘minimum wage’ corridors proposed in response to P&O Ferries actions on short sea routes also have some obvious overlap and opportunities for domestic Rating apprenticeships along the lines of proposals presented at COP27 by the Maritime Just Transition Task Force.6

As mentioned previously in this document, the Maritime Skills Commission’s work on green skills will also be crucial in material developments which make a just transition for seafarers (including trainee Ratings) a reality.

There is no doubt that internationally mandated seafarer qualifications will need to be amended in line with the urgent need to decarbonise the shipping industry. This is not limited to the IMO Standards in Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) Convention.

RMT is working with industry and the UK and Scottish Governments to develop an offshore training passport. This includes international training standards bodies OPITO and the Global Wind Organisation. In some settings, offshore wind turbine work, for example, STCW qualifications can be required. Harmonising and outlining the training requirements and support for meeting re-training costs must be a strategic goal for the MNTB.

This will also cover the definition of seafarer and RMT has made a start with the MCA in discussing this complex problem. The recent tragic loss of a crane operator on the Liberian registered jack-up vessel Valaris121, 100 miles off Aberdeen7 starkly illustrates the need to provide trainees and workers with a more effective regulatory framework. Strategically, UK shipping cannot be in the position whereby regulatory failures, especially in the key area of safety, become a barrier to training Ratings or Cadets on jack up or any other vessels working outside the UK territorial water limit.

There is also a strategic imperative for the UK to respond to the policies of other major seafarer nations providing labour to the European shipping industry.8 As the General Secretary of the ITF, Steve Cotton has said in response to the shrewd move of the Filipino Government, “We call on other governments to follow the Philippines proactive leadership that is putting the future of seafarers at the heart of discussions and decisions on the future of shipping.”

The MNTB is in pole position to work with government, unions, training providers and employers to provide that proactive leadership for the future of British Ratings and Officer in a fast evolving shipping industry.

6 https://www.itfglobal.org/en/reports-publications/mapping-just-transition-seafarers

7 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-north-east-orkney-shetland-64370109

8 https://www.ecsa.eu/index.php/news/new-advisory-committee-launched-address-major-maritimeissues-impacting-filipino-seafarers

Collective Bargaining Agreements

Where RMT has recognition with an employer, the Union’s policy is to seek agreement on annual targets for training UK Ratings.

Back filing Ratings roles with individuals from local communities should be a strategic aim in the MNTB’s revamped strategy. A collective bargaining agreement is evidence of a mutual commitment to constructive and pragmatic relations between the union and the employer.

Discussion of seafarer training is a natural extension of good industrial relations and would also ensure better pay and conditions for trainee Ratings.