Several partners of the Maritime Training College including Nature Seychelles were part of an Exhibition which ran for the full week at the training facility in Providence. The exhibition was being to coincide with the World Maritime Day on 27 of September. The aim was to showcase the link between training at the MTC and job opportunities in the maritime and related industries.
The exhibition was open to students from secondary schools as well as their career guidance teachers, parents of MTC trainees and the general public.
Addressing guests, partners and the media at the opening of the event, the Acting Director of MTC Mr. Brian Hoareau said the institution has been organizing open days for the general public since 2010, spurred on by the ‘Go to Sea’ campaign of the International Maritime Organization. The campaign encourages young people to take up careers at sea. The response from the partners and the students visiting, he said, has been very positive.
Nature Seychelles has taken part in all the open days at MTC. The organization has used the opportunity to recruit youngsters to work on Cousin Island Special Reserve and a significant number of its wardens in recent years has come from the training institute.
Nature Seychelles stand was manned by Christopher, a former student of MTC who is now Cousin warden. Many of the current students of the MTC, particularly in their final years have shown interest in conservation and tour guiding careers, he says.
Demand for trained mariners has seen an increase in the traditional setting of shipping and fisheries, especially as Seychelles has established itself as a strategic partner in both fisheries and international shipping, Mr. Hoareau said.
But the training institution is also getting ready for training in other areas including maritime tourism, sustainable development, food security and nutrition especially as fish is a key source of protein, and mari-culture.
A message from the International Maritime Organisation was also read at the opening. The theme of this year’s Maritime Day is ‘One hundred years after the Titanic.’ It focuses on issues of safety of life at sea.