Pursuing a career at sea: an empirical profile of South African cadets and implications for career awareness

Sustainable job creation remains a challenge in South Africa despite government attempts to increase employment opportunities amongst the youth which include the drawing up of a National Development Plan. Although, the South African maritime industry is suggested as a job growth sector, little is empirically known about the profile of prospective cadets thus making human resource development policy difficult to formulate. The article notes the limited number of seafarers recruited from South Africa and seeks to identify the factors that contribute to current cadets pursuing a maritime career, with the aim of informing recruitment policy. In this cross-sectional survey, census sampling was attempted with 108 respondents completing a quasi-adopted questionnaire from a population of 120 undergraduate students pursuing cadetships at a South African university. Descriptive statistics are mainly used to present findings which provide insight into the biographical details of cadets, the sources of funding for their studies, the importance of funding for their eventual graduation, the awareness levels of their chosen careers and likelihood of them remaining in their chosen careers at sea. The results show that seafaring has the potential to create thousands of jobs, yet there is limited support to reach the desired levels.