Stars Maritime Academy has advised cadets to sit for their mandatory examinations abroad, especially in Ghana and not Nigeria. The academy noted that writing the mandatory examination in Nigeria limits cadets to operate only on Nigerian waters, because Nigeria is not on the White List of the International Maritime Organization (IMO)
Speaking with Shipping Position Daily last week, Head of Shipping Management Department of Stars Maritime Academy, Mr. Chris Sadoh confirmed that the academy is also in affiliation with foreign universities where its cadets are now being awarded with Bachelor Degrees.
He said that the academy has gone beyond the shores of Nigeria to ensure that its graduates can compete with others around the world. Sadoh added that maritime is not narrowed to Nigeria alone, it is worldwide.
He said, "on our part, we encourage our boys not to limit themselves to Nigeria alone because maritime is worldwide"
"Some of the boys we trained are now in Qatar as Captains of ships, Marine Engineers and so on"
"We don't encourage them to do their mandatories in Nigeria; we encourage them to go to Ghana to have their mandatory course.
The reason is that we are not on the White List of the IMO, therefore, having your mandatories done here is like limiting yourself to Nigerian waters"
"Today, we run other courses that can award you a BSc degree, it is not Stars Maritime awarding the BSc, we are in affiliation with foreign countries that train individuals on different fields to back the award"
"We are doing this so that our graduates would not feel that what we are doing with them is a terminal programme"
"We have affiliation with one of the renowned university in Benin Republic, students are trained and certificated in the university", he said.
According to Sadoh, there is need for Federal Government to acquire training vessels for cadets because, getting individuals trained without sea time would negatively affect the young bloods coming into the sector.
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