Towards maritime employment and retention policy - A longitudinal study on entrants' perspectives

In the context of the diminishing appeal of a career at sea and the continued growth of fleets, promoting employment at sea among young people, especially women, is in the spotlight. Various solutions are proposed, including attractive cadet trainee programs, to encourage young people to work at sea and pursue a long-term career. However, the main hopes, incentives, and concerns of the entrants while enrolling at a maritime education and training (MET) institution remain unclear. To investigate this issue, a longitudinal study has been performed on newly enrolled Navigation students of the Gdynia Maritime University by paper-based questionnaires distributed during one of their first courses at the university. The results of this study may prove valuable in determining future seafarers' employment and retention policy-making recommendations aimed at attracting new entrants and retaining them in a number sufficient to sustain the operations of maritime transportation.