24 seafarers trained at Mahapola Ports and Maritime Academy of SLPA pass out

T.M.G. Thennakoon who won the first place among trained seafarers receiving his award from Youth and Sports, Development Coordination and Monitoring Minister and Digital Technology and Enterprise Development State Minister Namal Rajapaksa, while Ports and Shipping Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena looks on 

 The first batch of seafarers trained under the patronage of ILO at the Mahapola Ports and Maritime Academy of SLPA

Twenty-four seafarers including three women trained at the Mahapola Ports and Maritime Academy (MPMA) of the Sri Lanka Ports Authority (SLPA) passed out on Friday. 

The event was held with the initiative of Ports and Shipping Minister Rohitha Abeygunawardena and Youth and Sports, Development Coordination and Monitoring Minister and Digital Technology and Enterprise Development State Minister Namal Rajapaksa. 

This is the first batch of 100 seafarers being trained under full patronage of the International Labour Organization (ILO). Opportunities are now available for these seafarers to join service on board commercial vessels as professionals in the industry.

Speaking at the event, Minister Abeygunawardena said that the Sri Lankan Merchant Shipping sector should move forward with a new vision. 

“We are now aiming to earn a large amount of foreign exchange by providing trained seafarers to the international shipping industry, a sector that effectively generates employment opportunities,” he said. The Minister said that necessary instructions had been extended to the Merchant Shipping Secretariat and the Sri Lanka Ports Authority in this regard. In Sri Lanka at present, there are about 16,000 trained seafarers included in the workforce. The industry specialises in creating a skilled youth workforce to replace young people with no or lesser professional skills, and enabling professional youth to conquer the foreign employment market to generate more foreign exchange on the basis of a smaller number of individual involvement. The Minister also said that the aim of the ministry was to increase the number of trained seafarers up to 50,000 in the next three years. 

Minister Rajapaksa said that professional training would create an environment in which the youth of Sri Lanka would be able to contribute more to the demand in the international labour market by empowering them with professional skills. 

“The patronage extended by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the National Union of Seafarers Sri Lanka (NUSS) to train these 100 seafarers is a significant contribution to the ongoing program to eradicate youth unemployment,” the Minister emphasised. He also expressed his gratitude to the program by the Ministry of Ports and Shipping to train 50,000 seafarers in the coming years. “In the face of the global pandemic of COVID-19, many achievements can be made by working together rather than individually,” he added.

Members of the ILO, National Union of Seafarers Sri Lanka (NUSS), Ports and Shipping Ministry Secretary U.D.C. Jayalal, Merchant Shipping Director General Ajith Seneviratne, SLPA Managing Director Upul Jayatissa, Harbour Master Capt. Nirmal De Silva, a number of professionals in the merchant shipping industry, management and lecturers of the MPMA of SLPA also joined the occasion.