How Bangladesh can secure global jobs for maritime graduates

Bangladesh is producing far more deck and engine cadets than the global shipping market can absorb, resulting in a national crisis. Cadets face long waits for training berths, skills atrophy, and a slide from officer-track careers into underemployment. Our training pipeline can produce several hundred officer-track graduates annually, but the number of shipboard training berths has lagged well behind. When a cadet cannot promptly secure the 12-plus months of sea time for a first Certificate of Competency (CoC), every passing quarter erodes competence, confidence, and employability. This mismatch between output and openings has been flagged by industry voices and analysts repeatedly, including calls to rethink maritime education and align intake with real demand, as mentioned in an article, titled "Why Bangladesh must rethink its maritime education," by The Financial Express.

Worse, our graduates face frictions that peers from leading seafarer hubs do not. According to a report by this daily, cadets from many countries can travel on seafarer IDs to seek berths, but Bangladeshi cadets often cannot without prior work visas, shutting them out of interviews and last‑minute joiner opportunities in crew‑change ports. That single administrative choke‑point compounds the placement gap created by an oversupplied cohort.

However, there is a proven way out. Vietnam, once in a similar bind, partnered with the Dutch Shipping and Transport College (STC) Group and the University of Transport Ho Chi Minh City to create UT‑STC—a finishing‑school‑plus‑placement hub that aligned training to European expectations (including International Maritime Organization compliant and DNV certified simulators and employer‑designed modules). Then it actively brokered cadet berths with EU ship owners. UT‑STC is also a Marlins-approved English test centre, underscoring language and soft‑skill standards that recruiters trust.

In late 2009, I, along with two of my colleagues, had the privilege of attending a two‑week refresher training programme arranged by the STC Group in Vietnam. The programme was held at their joint venture institute adjacent to the University of Transport Ho Chi Minh City (UT‑HCMC), the very partnership that produced the remarkable UT‑STC model. Observing the institution's infrastructure, curriculum integration, and the precision with which Dutch maritime training principles have been localised was a revelation. The blend of theory, simulator work, and industry exposure reflected a deep alignment between academic preparation and real‑world vessel operations.

The experience provided more than academic insight; it offered a living demonstration of how structured collaboration with an international training house can transform the employability of maritime graduates. The Vietnamese cadets we met were confident, linguistically competent, and visibly aligned with international safety and operational culture. It was evident that the Dutch collaboration had not merely transferred technology, rather it had transferred a mindset. The proximity to UT‑HCMC allowed continuous academic linkage, while STC's involvement ensured that the training retained credibility with European shipowners. For us, it was both inspiring and instructive working model that Bangladesh can adapt almost directly.

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To do that, first, Bangladesh must create a Bangladesh Maritime University (BMU)‑anchored international finishing track: a 12-16‑week, employer‑co‑designed module layered on top of cadet programmes delivered with a reputable foreign partner—so the credential signals instant trust to global crewing managers. That partner could be an EU training house (in the style of STC) or a Nordic academy favoured by Norwegian owners. The goal is simple: when a CV lands on a superintendent's desk in Hamburg or Oslo, the badge says "job‑ready." This is precisely the direction urged by reformers arguing for quality over unchecked expansion.

Second, fix the visa choke‑point. Pursue targeted seafarer mobility arrangements with crew‑change hubs, such as the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Hong Kong, so that Bangladeshi cadets holding seafarers identity documents (SIDs) can enter, interview and join vessels without pre‑secured employment visas, as competitors do.

Third, tie intake to real demand. Leading suppliers like the Philippines shape maritime‑school admissions against forecast vacancies. Bangladesh should do the same for the next five intakes. We can use officer‑demand projections by international shipping associations, such as Baltic and International Maritime Council (BIMCO) and International Chamber of Shipping (ICS), and employer commitments from any finishing‑track partner. This can protect cohorts from avoidable underemployment while rebuilding credibility.

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Fourth, make placement a public good, not a private gamble. A national cadet placement portal under the Department of Shipping and BMU can standardise profiles, publish transparent queues, and let vetted employers pull candidates directly; pairing it with strict ethical‑recruitment oversight of manning agents so families are not extorted for berths. India's ability to move large graduate cohorts into foreign fleets each year is not accidental; it is coordination, as mentioned in an article, "Why Bangladesh needs a national maritime roadmap," published by The Daily Star.

Fifth, sell Bangladesh's edge. Our flagship academy and new public campuses have infrastructure that, if curated properly, can impress owners. Package simulator time, English‑for‑mariners benchmarks and safety culture into a co‑branded assurance with the foreign partner and take it to owners' associations: the Norwegian Shipowners' Association, German and Dutch groups, and Japanese networks. Vietnam's UT‑STC did not wait for the market to come to it. It went to the market with an offer owners could trust. The lessons from my own exposure to UT‑STC reaffirm that successful initiatives stem, not from waiting for opportunity, but from deliberately engineering trust through competence, transparency, and collaboration.

Sixth, protect the brand by protecting the licence. Certificating integrity is everything. Any policy that dilutes the pathways to the continuous discharge certificate (CDC)—an official document for seafarers with records of their sea-service history—or, CoC or tolerates weak sea‑time verification undermines every graduate's prospects. The quickest way to lose EU and white‑list confidence is to appear casual about standards; the quickest way to win is to be stricter than required and invite inspection, a stance repeatedly advocated in policy commentary.

Finally, treat post‑cadet drift as a solvable training gap, not an individual failure. When berths are scarce, BMU and the academies should keep graduates warm with simulator refreshers, English labs, dynamic positioning familiarisation, LNG cargo basics and digital seamanship modules, so a six‑month wait does not become a skills cliff. In Vietnam, UT‑STC's short courses were designed to convert waiting time into competitiveness—a small investment with outsized hiring returns once recruiters arrive. Having seen this first-hand, I am convinced that Bangladesh can replicate this "warm‑hold" model (before skills learned at the academy get cold) at modest cost but immense strategic benefit.

This is not about lowering ambition; it is about raising certainty. A Bangladesh-EU finishing track signals quality. Mobility agreements remove pointless frictions. Demand‑shaped intake protects cohorts. A national placement platform levels access. Tough love on licensing safeguards recognition. And "warm hold" training flips idle time into value. Do these together and you change the first employer's calculus from risk‑averse to opportunity‑seeking. Give our cadets the last mile they've earned; the ships, and the world, will do the rest.

Ahamedul Karim Chowdhury is adjunct faculty at Bangladesh Maritime University, and former head of inland container depot at Kamalapur and Pangaon Inland Container Terminal under Chittagong Port Authority.

Views expressed in this article are the author's own. 

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