The South African Maritime Safety Authority (Samsa) has partnered with Norwegian shipping giant Klaveness to provide skills training and create jobs for South African seafarers.
The partnership, which was officially launched earlier this week in Port Shepstone, will provide training and placements for South African seafarers on Norwegian vessels owned and operated by Klaveness.
Thus far, the partnership – which was rolled out as a pilot in 2013 – has created about 35 jobs, targeting learners from Mthusi High School in KwaXolo. Most of the positions created have been ratings, a general term for a wide variety of skilled support roles on vessels.
“Through the partnership with Klaveness, we are creating much-needed jobs for South Africans. But even more importantly, we are creating jobs in areas where there are few to no jobs, and we are opening up opportunities in the maritime economy to those who traditionally cannot access this sector,” said Samsa chief operations officer Sobantu Tilayi.
Klaveness adopted the community of KwaXolo in 2013 with the intention of recruiting learners from the area and training them to work on their vessels. Thanks to the success of the programme it has been expanding gradually to accommodate all South African seafarers.
As part of the partnership agreement, Klaveness will open an office in KwaXolo in three years.
At least 10 youth from the area area will be employed by the company every year.
