
On the July 10th, the Maritime and Port Bureau (MPB) of the Minis-try of Transportation and Communications (MOTC) held a live webcast event “Sailing Towards the Grand Line Podcast” on the MPB’s official Fa-cebook page “Tales from the MPB ”, which generated a lot of public inter-est in the shipping industry. Today (July 22nd), Deputy Minister Chi Wen-Jong of the MOTC and Director-General Yeh Hsieh-Lung of the MPB announced the official launch of the “2021 Online Career and Edu-cation Expo for the Shipping Industry of the Maritime and Port Bureau of the Ministry of Transportation and Communications” via an online video recording. The MPB invited nearly 50 organizations and departments from the shipping industry, government, and academia to join the event, and of-fered more than 3,000 job openings and recruitment positions. The three major domestic ocean carriers also made every effort to support the event, offering a number of vacancies at the managerial level, including captains (managerial level) and chief engineers, with a monthly salary of up to NT$300,000.
Chi Wen-Jong, Deputy Minister of the MOTC, said that the expo was made possible by Director-General Yeh Hsieh-Lung of the MPB, who re-sponded to the suggestions of the academia and the industry during discus-sion with the presidents of maritime colleges and the shipping industry. Unlike the previous expos, which were held jointly with other disciplines, this time the MPB took the role as the competent authority of maritime transportation to integrate and create the first employment and further edu-cation expo in Taiwan focusing on the “six major fields in shipping”. It can be regarded as the first of its kind, and is particularly meaningful to Taiwan, which holds a significant position in global maritime transporta-tion.
In his speech, Deputy Minister Chi Wen-Jong said that in the past, the general public’s understanding of shipping was mostly stuck in the stereo-type of a life “stuck on the seas” and that the crew were unable to take care of their families. However, with the rapid advancement of technology, the convenience of the Internet, and the smartization of ship operations, crew members are no longer “lonely seafarers” but “professional navigators”. Crew members would have more opportunities in the future to work ashore and take up management positions in shipping companies, so it is definitely an ideal job with long-term development. In addition, with the promotion of the domestic green energy policy and the rising national awareness of marine tourism, offshore wind power, cruise ships, yachts and other marine leisure industries are also growing and developing rapid-ly. Together with the businesses and government agencies based around port affairs, the career development of shipping is no longer limited to the sea, but can be extended to onshore, making it an excellent workplace en-vironment for taking care of both career and family.
In addition, the MPB pointed out that the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a considerable impact on most industries, but the shipping industry has grown into one of the “hottest” industries in spite of the pandemic. Therefore, the entire shipping industry is fully sup-portive of this expo. In addition to the many job openings, Chang Yen-I, Chairman of Evergreen Marine Corporation, Cheng Chen-Mount, Chair-man of Yang Ming Marine Transport Corporation, Lee Hsien-Yi, Chair-man of Taiwan International Ports Corporation, and the presidents of three domestic maritime universities shared the trend and future of the shipping industry through a video, in order to let more people know about the ship-ping industry and even attract talents to consider the shipping industry as their career choice.
The MPB further said that, in conjunction with the new academic year, the expo has specially incorporated the recruitment campaign of mar-itime colleges and universities. In addition to providing candidates and parents with an additional channel to learn about shipping-related subjects, more importantly, the expo has planned an online career consulting service to conduct aptitude tests for candidates. The professional consulting ser-vice will help candidates who are still hesitant and exploring their apti-tudes to understand their strengths and make it easy to select their fields of study.
The Online Career and Education Expo organized by the MPB will be running for more than a month until August 31st. In addition to search-ing for the latest job openings on the official website, interested parties can also watch videos online, including discussions of industry and human re-sources experts on the development and future of the shipping industry, as well as interview and job search techniques. By booking appointments, members of the public can meet with resume checkers and career consult-ants online for free one-on-one resume check and career aptitude consult-ing services. Furthermore, to encourage more talents to join the shipping industry, the MPB has planned a lucky draw to give away a total of more than NT$50,000 worth of prizes to those who book job interview ap-pointments. The prizes include a sports camera, waterproof Bluetooth speakers, a waterproof digital LCD watch, canvas bags, and pens that sym-bolize good luck in job hunts and exams. It is hoped that these actions would not only help people in further education and job hunting, but also to make use of this platform to start a new chapter in their lives.
The MPB would like to once again remind the public that all those interested in the shipping industry, regardless of whether or not you are qualified as a seafarer, will have an opportunity now to join the shipping industry. A series of related activities will continue until August 31st, and the latest news will be announced from time to time on the official event website (https://www.fullahead2021.com/) and the “Tales from the MPB” Facebook page (https://zh-tw.facebook.com/motcmpb.gov.tw/). Interested parties are welcome to keep updated of the latest news and become the “King of the Oceans” together.
Contact person: Chan, Chia-Chuan, Section Chief, Seafarers Administration Division
Contact number: +886-2-89788036