Sepec starts first phase of recruitment for seafarers |15 February 2014

Successful candidates will be placed on the MT Seychelles Paradise as apprentices

The Seychelles Petroleum Company Limited (Sepec) has embarked on active continual training of seafarers and carried its first recruitment drive in January.

So far, 26 potential crewing candidates have undergone psychometric testing – assessments aimed at evaluating the candidates’ ability or propensity for a career as a mariner.

Since acquiring its first tanker – MT Seychelles Pride – in 2002, Sepec endeavored to fully man its tanker fleet with local crew and targeted employing around 200 Seychellois across all ranks onboard the vessels, with particular attention to recruitment of Seychellois at ordinary and advanced levels with potential in officer cadet positions.

Sepec has said that this first recruitment drive is important as it marked the first batch of candidates that if successful, will be introduced to the Maritime Training Centre and CINEC Marine training programme to cater for the Seychelles tankers’ basic training requirements.

The programme was initiated through the Sri Lanka/Seychelles bilateral development agreement, encompassing opportunities in the marine sector that followed the visit of President James Michel to Sri Lanka.

CINEC is the primary marine college in Sri Lanka, with international recognition and high profile endorsements within the marine industry. The college caters for several international owners and shipping companies across Europe and Asia.

Sepec evaluated the quality and cost comparisons between several colleges and opted to use CINEC as the principal training college as of this year, 2014.

Reports from the test results will be available by mid-March 2014. The candidates considered viable from these results will be called in for further interviews and those successful will then be placed on basic standards of training, certification and watch-keeping (STCW) courses to be delivered by the Maritime Training Centre / CINEC partnership at the Maritime Training Centre’s Providence compound in the coming months. Following that, they will be placed on Sepec’s local vessel – MT Seychelles Paradise – as well as on its deep sea vessels as apprentices. They will join fellow Seychellois seafarers numbering 112 currently contracted on the company’s tankers. The target is to grow the current numbers both in size and strength in the coming year.

After gaining some experience at sea the candidates will then return for further specialist Able Seafarer training again at the Maritime Training Centre in collaboration with CINEC.

Sepec’s chief executive Conrad Benoiton and shipping and crew manager Pierre Prosper took time to talk to the students, re-iterating that the company will offer those who come through an excellent career opportunity, but they will need to show discipline, hard work and most of all stand out and be wanted in all they do as part of the Sepec team.