Skills and Training

While the first and second strategies had achieved much since the inception of the Skills Development Act of 1998, a severe lack of skills was constraining the economy, said Minister of Higher Education and Training Blade Nzimande in Midrand, Johannesburg in January this year.

Globally, the shortage of skills needed to keep the world’s marine fleets negotiating international seas safely and efficiently has become so critical that the International Maritime Organization (IMO) launched a “Go to Sea” campaign to attract entrants to the shipping industry.

Landlubber from Joburg lured by old-time sails

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky; And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by.” With these words, the poet John Masefield immortalised the romanticism of the tall sailing ship in his poem, Sea-Fever.