Our policy on quality and standard

Maritime Education and Training (M.E.T.) is an exacting field - in communicating professional knowledge and proficiency - given the fact that the Shipping Industry is very competitive, highly demanding, and there isn't room but for the fittest.

A bird's eye view on the unique maritime flora and fauna will certainly amaze the reader.

The vessels

Vessels plow the seas and visit ports round the world, round the year, round the clock, Sundays holidays included, exercising a strong, political and economic influence in a world scale. - Remember, seven eighths of our planet, is water-covered, and oceans set, industrial and farming power-hubs, far apart from raw materials and consumers/users.. To the extent - one might reason that - God took side with the shipowners (!) ...

World demand in energy, raw material, foodstuffs and industrial products is enormous, and 96% of the world trade goes by sea.

Without vessels there would be no international trade and people would be threatened from want of food and energy. An estimated 7 billion tones of cargoes is yearly carried by ships, of a combined cargo-carrying capacity of 1 billion tones. The current world bill in freights stands at about $ 250 billion per year, and then, you add to this up gains from a long litany of maritime activities - port and dock facilities, shipyards, brokers, agents, banks, suppliers, plus many, many more elements that go to make the Maritime Cluster.

MET is the single element that prepares the men and women, able to sail vessels and breathe life into the whole Cluster.

The sea

Ships safely, at a lower expense move goods - the cost per tone / mile in energy consumed, being lower than any other means of transport by a factor up to 100. They are the friendliest to the environment, which remains to be appreciated by the environmentalists, the governments, and the people.

Consider how our lives (. if any) would be like, in a world without vessels, but thousands more, aircrafts above and huge freight lorries roaring on the roads, spewing vast quantities of exhausts and further poisoning life.

An oil spill or any sea casualty, invariably results in a harried - and very often very bad - publicity, vexing headlines and archive pictures of oil-soaked birds are shown with a hot zeal to attract viewers and readers but not to honestly inform. This sort of publicity shapes the general perception for vessels and not their contribution to international development and prosperity. Add the many chances for the young in any developed maritime country to get a shore employment, and what you have on hand is the looming shortages of national seafarers - officers in particular.

That said we may rank shipping as the greatest international industry, having a propitious impact on our lives.

The mariners

About 1.400.000 seafarers do the exciting job, and they constitute a particular offshoot of the human species, they actually form a particular species. An endangered species, to the E.U.'s erudite judgement.

Life onboard extremely varies, the sea being an exciting - and untrustworthy - element, impressions, experiences and conditions constantly change, and they never let the mariner to get bored.

Two features of the maritime profession make it entirely particular.

A prudent state policy on MET will attract and train the young, securing the necessary national manpower for the Cluster.

The tradition

British say that a child's education starts 100 years before it's born.. Hellenes, several thousand years ago, started planting their hope and desire onto the ocean, they do harvest skill and prosperity thence, and look at Homer's account about Odysseus and his boatbuilding dexterity.

"Twenty trees in all he felled, and then trimmed them with the axe of bronze, and deftly smoothed them, and over them made straight the line. Meanwhile Calypso, the fair goddess, brought him augers, so he bored each piece and jointed them together, and then made all fast with trenails and dowels.

... And thereat he wrought, and set up the deckings, fitting them to the close-set uprights, and finished them off with long gunwales, and therein he set a mast, and a yardarm fitted thereto, and moreover he made him a rudder to guide the craft...

And he made fast therein braces and halyards and sheets, and at last he pushed the raft with levers down to the fair salt sea."

Later the Greeks wrought splendid fighting galleys, propelled by one, or three banks of oars. They must have made a brave sight, rowing among the Greek islands, oar blades flashing wet in the golden sunshine, spray curling white along the powerful ram, large sail swelling in the soft, warm breeze.

Proper MET is the key factor if we really are in to keep with our tradition.

The owners

The Media and business community rhapsodize about the virtues of the novice global faith, and its mysteries, but corporate potentates are actually in a "to be or not to be" mood. Should they take the path to open competition and free enterprise to a vast scale? Do they actually have what it takes to constructive contend in the global marketplace? Or stay local instead, easy riders on national subsidy and protectionism? But owners and seafarers never were involuntary or unsteady in their trade, which it was always just global. An early man jumped on a floating log, he then put some primitive commodity aboard and with cupped hands and kicking feet sailed across the river or the bay to explore and barter. And water born trade was born! Ten thousand years ago Greek ships sailed around the known world carrying grain from Egypt and Crimea, glassware from Sidon, obsidian from Thira etc., etc., and commerce flourished, Hellens are right in boasting for the longest marine tradition. Today Greece is a maritime super power UNCTAD says. Greek owners control 19% of the global merchant fleet, but Greece is a relatively small country of about 11 million people and the state seems to feel permanently embarrassed and uncomfortable with the extra-super baby.

As Greek owned fleet expands, shortages of qualified officers grow, which causes great concern among the shipping community, but not to the government. That petty politics do not constitute a shipping strategy, it goes without saying...

An efficient national MET system, remains to be seen.

In our Training Facility :