U.K. Sees Rise in Merchant Navy Training Applications

Clyde Marine Training, the U.K.’s largest Merchant Navy Training provider current figures show the number of people applying to train at nautical college for a future merchant navy career has risen dramatically in the last 12 months. After collating statistics from the past two years we can report that application numbers are at an all-time high. The period 2011-2012 to 2012-2013 have seen a jump of 44% in the overall application numbers for the three main job types; engineers, deck officers and electro-technical officers.

Drilling into this rise in Deck Officer applications, which has traditionally always been the most popular choice, in 2012-2013 they totaled 52% of all applications received. The Engineering degree applications in 2012-2013 took up 43%, with Electro Technical totals at approximately 5%.

Interestingly the number of applicants for Engineering rose more steeply in 2012/13, up nearly 60% on the previous period.

Colin McMurray, Managing Director of Clyde Marine Training commented, “We were pleasantly surprised by these increased numbers because the standard of application has risen too. The application process is harder than it has ever been but at the same time we’ve been working hard with schools to attract the best quality applicants. It’s pleasing that more and more young people are viewing the Merchant Navy as their first choice career.”

Clyde Marine Training, a subsidiary of the Clyde Group, manages more than 900 Trainees at any one time on behalf of 55 Clients. Its trainees are placed at seven colleges / universities throughout the U.K.

The Scottish maritime services sector has a significant economic impact, directly employing 41,600 workers in Scotland (2011). Nearly two-thirds of these were in the ports industry, with the majority of the remainder employed by the shipping industry. Approximately one in every four people employed by the maritime services sector in the U.K. was based in Scotland in 2011. As such, there were nearly twice as many people employed in Scotland than in any of the U.K.’s other countries or regions. It is estimated that the maritime services sector contributed over £2.2 billion to the Scottish economy in 2011, accounting for an estimated 2.0% of the country’s total economic output. The maritime services sector in Scotland in highly productive. The average level of productivity in the sector (in terms of GVA per person employed) was over £53,500 in 2011, around 10% higher than the U.K. economy-wide average and as much as 25% higher than the Scottish whole economy average.