In order to sustain its current status as the premier provider of quality seafarers worldwide, the Philippine’s Commission on Higher Education is pushing for an upgrade in maritime education.

According to Capt. Hernando Eusebio, this push for educational and training improvement is needed to create more competitive Filipino seafarers in the future. Also, if the upgrades push through, the Philippines will continue to hold its current prestige as the global maritime industry.

“Only through upgrading our maritime training curriculum can the Philippines maintain its lead as the world’s number one supplier of efficient and highly trained seamen,” Eusebio emphasized.

Eusebio also added that the CHED technical panel and its working group is doing everything in its power to come up with updated training syllabus that will further cement the Filipino seamen’s excellent reputation.

“We are being aided in this task by other government agencies (with maritime functions) and manning industry stakeholders,” he added.

Apart from updating the maritime schools’ curriculum, Eusebio also noted that training centres must also invest on quality people and equipment to make their graduates more globally competitive.

“This is the only way we can survive and compete internationally. Adequate funding must be set aside to obtain these requisites,” Eusebio said.