As we welcome a new year full of promise and excitement, our motherland is also taking giant strides towards development, keeping pace with the fast moving world. Our hopes and dreams are part of our motherland’s future and our growth and success are tied to those of our dear motherland.
With Sri Lanka being strategically located in close proximity to the world’s most important sea routes, maritime industry is poised to usher in the new era of development to the country. With more than 90% of the world trade still being carried out via sea routes, the maritime industry is clearly laden with tremendous potential to uplift Sri Lanka to the next level of development. This also puts our talented Sri Lankan youth in an ideal position to embark on successful and lucrative careers at sea and benefit from the development prospects of the country.
Merchant navy profession, with its fair share of adventure and excitement, is regarded as one of the most lucrative professions in the world. Most of the youth are not aware of the excitements and benefits of a career at sea and tend to seek more commonly followed career paths in engineering, IT or management. The global maritime industry has a high demand for skilled and educated seafaring professionals and this puts Sri Lanka on the map as a source for qualified merchant seafarers.
For skilled seafarers, employment is guaranteed and a cadet officer’s starting salary is usually around $2000/- a month. This increases year on year as you climb up the career ladder and in a few years’ time, once you have completed your full training and become a ship’s captain or a chief engineer, your gross salary will be within the range of $ 8000 – $ 10000. This shows how much of a lucrative career seafaring can be. Thousands of Sri Lankans have embarked on successful careers as ship’s captains or chief engineers and conquered the seven seas, making their motherland proud.
Mercmarine Training is Sri Lanka’s oldest merchant navy training institute and is globally reputed for producing top notch seafaring professionals. For over three decades, Mercmarine Training has been continually producing the best seafaring professionals in the areas of Navigational Officer Cadets, Engineering Officer Cadets, Deck Ratings, Engine Ratings and Catering Ratings, providing an entry for young school leavers to a most rewarding career at sea.
Established in 1986 as the first privately owned maritime training institute, Mercmarine Training is the training arm of the German shipping giant, Mercmarine Group. As a globally reputed shipping group of companies, Mercmarine Group operates as a ship owner, crew manager and a maritime trainer. Riding on the group strengths and with a genuine passion for producing Sri Lankan seafarers of highest caliber, Mercmarine Training has been at the helm of Sri Lanka’s maritime education for 31years now.
At the core of Mercmarine Training’s success is the ability to keep pace with advances in shipping technology and educate their students in the most innovative training solutions in the industry. The Institute is the ideal technologically advanced training center to help prospective seafarers apply their acquired skills to the real-world challenges of the marine environment.
Mercmarine Training is focused in training the officer cadets uninterruptedly to sail the world as Merchant Navy Officers. The institute achieves this by fulfilling the two most important requirements of the cadet training. Uncompromised shore based training and the opportunity for practical sea training on board a ship without any delays. The opportunity to sail on board a ship for practical training is essential to complete the studies as a Merchant Navy Officer and to obtain the Certificate of Competency (COC) as required by the Director General of Merchant Shipping (DGMS). Providing this opportunity is the responsibility of the training institute and Mercmarine Training holds unparalleled reputation in this regard.
Mercmarine Training leverages on its reputation in the global industry and the Mercmarine Group’s strengths as a ship owner and a crew manager to provide their students with practical sea training opportunities without any delays. Because of this, Mercmarine Training is able to guarantee practical sea training required to complete your studies to the level of Certificate of Competency (COC) and Mercmarine Training studentsenjoy the opportunity to sail with the best shipping companies in the world.
MercmarineTraining’s lecture panel consists of some of the industry’s most experienced professionals who take pride in sharing and presenting their knowledge using the most technologically advanced equipment. Many of Mercmarine Training’s lecturers are Master Mariners & Chief Engineerswith extensive sailing experience. As the forerunning maritime training institute, Mercmarine Training is aware that the key to successful training is based on how current your sailing experience is and for this reason the instituteutilizes the services of Master Mariners & Chief Engineers who frequently sail in between their lecturing stints at the institute.
Mercmarine Training is also the leader in Sri Lankan maritime education, in adapting to the changing demands of the global maritime industry. Identifying the increasing demand for female seafarers in the global shipping industry and its’ benefits to Sri Lanka’s youth, Mercmarine Training introduced a special scholarship scheme to promote the profession among Sri Lankan women.
This unique scholarship programme is an unprecedented initiative and was launched in 2016 in line with the institute’s 30th anniversary. One of the first female cadets to win the scholarship, Cadet Gimhani Herath emerged as the batch top at the 23rd pass out of officer cadets at the Mercmarine Training, proving the institute’s efforts to be fruitful. The scholarship scheme provides two scholarships worth Rs. 1 million each for two selected female cadet applicants and will continue this year as well.
Those who wish to obtain more information regarding the courses and the scholarship programme can contact Mercmarine Training via e-mail: helpdesk@msti.lk or by telephone: 011 7476100 / 0769 387477.
