As a national shortage of maritime labor persists in all sectors of the industry, the federal agency overseeing maritime affairs and training is stepping up efforts to entice more young people to join the maritime trades.
As part of this initiative, the Maritime Administration released in December its first “Diverse Mariner Workforce Recruitment Strategy.” The report identifies challenges that the nation’s six maritime training schools and the federal U.S. Merchant Marine Academy face in attracting students — especially women and minorities — and assuring that they apply and enroll in the schools and then graduate into maritime jobs.
The report was one of the last actions taken by Marad under the Biden administration, which made diversity and inclusion a large part of its policy directions at the academy. It is not yet clear how President Donald Trump’s new executive order to terminate all government diversity, equity and inclusion programs, made after his inauguration on Jan. 20, will affect programs at the federal and state academies. A request for comment from Marad was not immediately answered.
“An afloat workplace must be safe and free from discrimination of any kind,” the report said. “To promote this environment, we are committed to creating a workforce more representative of America’s large and diverse population. Our strategy identifies initiatives to assist in improving diversity at the maritime academies. This is just one of many steps we are taking to foster shipboard cultures free of discrimination and harassment of any kind.”
This is a big goal to achieve, given that the academies have faced many allegations of sexual discrimination and assault over the past few years. Additionally, data in the report shows that the schools have a long way to go to make their student populations more diverse.
According to Marad statistics cited in the report, the total mariner credential program enrollment at all the academies is 87 percent male, 13 percent female, 77 percent white, 9 percent Hispanic or Latino, 4 percent Asian, 2 percent African American, 1 percent American Indian or Alaskan native, and 0 percent Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.
“Overall, data shows a stagnation or in some instances a decline in trends of overall diversity in gender, race and ethnicity across the student bodies at the academies,” the report said. “Females have remained at 13 percent since 2013, while the percentage of those from under-represented groups has remained unchanged since 2015.”
The schools face numerous challenges at each step of the education journey that are different and more complex than traditional four-year colleges and universities. These include attracting applicants to apply for highly technical majors within a very regimented campus life, enrolling admitted students and seeing that they graduate after completing demanding math and science programs that often require additional mariner training requirements and certifications as well as drug testing, medical exams, at-sea training and background checks.
Women and minorities are nationally underrepresented in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) studies, the study notes, which makes it difficult from the start for maritime schools to bring these groups into their math and science-focused programs.
Additionally, students who struggle with science and math have little opportunities to switch to less technical majors given the orientation of the academic programs. And if they do, they may no longer meet mariner training requirements, earn a Merchant Mariner Credential (MMC) and become a professional mariner.
As a result, there has been a downward trend since 2013 in the percentage and number of students enrolled in the mariner credentialing programs at the academies, the study said. “This negatively affects the overall mariner workforce, most notably the challenge of crewing vessels.”
Marad said the report focuses on quantitative data to understand the current demographics and establishes a plan to boost a coordinated national effort between the federal government, the schools and the industry to diversity the next generation of mariners.
The report recommends:
- Creating a new State Maritime Academy/USMMA recruitment and retention improvement team that would develop opportunities to improve student diversity, support services and faculty diversity.
- Evaluating current outreach and marketing programs to find gaps in messaging and emphasize maritime employment opportunities and salaries.
- Improving the use of data analytics to better target outreach programs and partnering with industry to introduce K-12 students to the maritime industry.
- Identifying federal and state resources to pay for students who need additional study time on campus beyond four years to complete their degrees. This would help improve graduation rates and “lead to a more diverse mariner workforce pool.”
“There are challenging conditions outside direct control, such as limited diversity within (a school’s) geographic region, a national deficit in the percentage of students pursuing a STEM education, and recruitment competition against larger colleges and universities for female students and underrepresented minorities,” the report said.
“These challenges may change over time and require adjustments as needed and a re-evaluation of initiatives. However, Marad will remain committed to bring about meaningful and continual change to strengthen the mariner workforce.”
