COMPETITIVENESS OF UKRAINIAN SEAMANS AT THE MODERN LABOR MARKET

Abstract

The article considers the study of the modern maritime labor market, comparison and analysis of education systems, number of seamen by nationality at the trade fleet. As a result of the presented statistical analysis, there can be seen the stable growth of a number of Asian seamen and slow, but stable fall of a percent of seamen from Europe. The analysis of the maritime labor market the last years demonstrates the small growth of a number of European seamen, but the fall in percent ratio to the previous years, connected with the world growth of the trade fleet. The development of the market of maritime labor and the dynamics of changes at it mainly depend on external and internal factors. State standards of training seamen and requirements to their professional competence must be constructed taking into account national and international requirements. An important external factor that influences the development of professional training of qualified seamen is the demand of shipowners for specialists that correspond to requirements of the convention and Code of STCW. Main problems, connected with education and training of future seamen, remained from the times of USSR, and are traced for today also. For solving them, under conditions of fast re-orientation from the internal market to the external one, at absence of the modern Ukrainian fleet, cardinal changes are necessary in the system of education for raising the competitiveness at the labor market, necessity of a state intervention in this question for increasing the material base, control, inflow of young specialists with the modern experience of working in this field.
The modern maritime Ukrainian doctrine includes main directions, according to which elaboration of program documents is realized, namely the development of education in the maritime field. At the same time, it is noted that “the state system of providing safety of navigation may become an effective instrument of solving tasks of the state maritime policy under conditions of functioning such main components of it as: a system of training and retraining of specialists for the maritime field and also organizations and enterprises that realize the activity on providing navigation safety” [1]. As an example, there is considered financing of scientific studies and training of seamen at Szczecin (Poland). The improvement of the modern training system is a necessity and must include a complete synergy of three main directions: theoretical knowledge, practical knowledge and English. The following labor market requirements to modern specialists in a perspective may be the following ones:
– at the theoretical level – scientific thinking, formation of knowledge of management and marketing, ecological and legal knowledge;
– at the practical level – commercial knowledge; ability to work in a collective competence; perfect mastering of informational and communicational technologies; mastering of foreign languages and so on;
– at the personal level – social competence; communication skills; personal initiative; responsibility; professional mobility; individuality; competitiveness; creativity; ability to make correct decisions; fast adaptation to changes [2].