Grooming of deck Cadets – 13

 

Just the way as the birth rate in a country defines the continuation of the country’s cultural heritage and social survival in the colossal world, the MN operating standards remain dependent heavily on the quality of Cadets enrolled in the career, their grooming and the attitudes they develop and their survivability in the career.

 

The cadets acquire academical portion of the knowledge through land based institutions and training facilities, while the practical operational skills are honed on board during their sea service.

At least to start with one needs to understand that the Maritime world today is at a juncture when the day is made when an enrolled cadet understands the key difference between a handheld web-search machine that is largely driven by marketing gimmicks and a purposeful commanding operation through the screen on board in a control room that is meant to achieve the navigational and engineering actions still based on the basic scientific operational principles that remain intact!

Having said all this and discussed so much about the grooming of the MN cadets, the fact is that every seafaring officer in the MN is directly or indirectly always grooming the cadets – the Cadets- like children in a family -  watch the seniors at work and learn, adopt or also decide not to follow something – there is no way out ….

The maritime world is a going through the transition on all fronts, from the way the ships are made, managed & operated at a pace that was never seen in the history. There is no way for the senior generation at sea at the moment except to be good at the traditional hands-on skills as well as the electronically controlled operating skills both and ensure that the cadets receive proper on-the-job grooming!

The clock is ticking before it is too late and the onus of developing future underdeveloped, unskilled officers will be on the current day serving officers of the MN !!

Safe sailings!