The COVID pandemic affected the whole world, including the maritime industry. Due to the many difficulties that arose during this time, many seafarers decided to change their jobs at sea.

The maritime industry has two sides: one is the sea and the other is the shore. There are a number of stakeholders (companies, organizations, agencies) in the industry whose employees have little or no experience at sea. These organizations could benefit from the experience that a former seafarer could provide.

The opportunity to employ experienced seafarers ashore is generally underutilised. In addition, due to their long contracts, seafarers sometimes do not have time to search and apply for a new job and may lose the opportunity to transfer to a shore-based job. As a result, competent and experienced employees, professionals and trainers in the EU and worldwide have to work at sea for the rest of their lives. The particular need for this project arises from the fact that there is currently no mechanism in digital form to propose an onshore job to seafarers who have worked at sea for a long time and gained valuable experience. This problem exists in most EU Member States. The SEA4SHORE project will investigate this problem.

SEA4SHORE project will develop:

– A competency map and profiles required for at least 120 alternative career paths ashore.

– An online tool that can be used by seafarers and students (future seafarers) that will help them assess the possibilities to work on shore. The partnership consists of maritime schools, nautical academies, online training companies and maritime training providers from 6 EU countries (LV, TR, ES, LT, GR, HR), ensuring both a solid implementation and sustainability of the project. The SEA4SHORE project will work towards making seafarers skills recognised in shore-based jobs hence allow more work mobility for European citizens.