Beyond Standard: Do The Marine Engineers Competence?

Abstract

Indonesia has an important role in the world maritime industry through a large number of Indonesian registered ships as well as the number of marine engineers. In this paper, we study the perceptions and expectations of seafarers' competence, especially Indonesian marine engineers. This is very important for policy makers to know which indicators are gaps so that solutions and improvement can be applied. This research is also important for the shipping companies to understand what is the strong factor of Indonesian marine engineers as well as the area which needs to be developed during on board ship. The gap analysis method is applied to compare the expectation and the perception of the competency variables. The results of this study provide feedback to the marine engineers to further enhance competence during individual ship work. To support this, a marine engineer may propose the application for training on board or training at a training institution while on vacation. In addition to these training institutions could also use the results of this study to increase the competence areas considered by the engineers who are less satisfied. The shipping company may also undertake enhanced training for shipboard engineers on board with ongoing training programs.