Maritime Education Network to Orient and Retain Women for Efficient Seagoing Services Erasmus Project

Project Title

Maritime Education Network to Orient and Retain Women for Efficient Seagoing Services

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Strategic Partnerships for higher education

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2017

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: New innovative curricula/educational methods/development of training courses; Labour market issues incl. career guidance / youth unemployment; Gender equality / equal opportunities

Project Summary

MENTORESS is a project which aims to increase the awareness of women in maritime, esp. seafarer women, to develop their situation in maritime, to give them the place they deserve in the sector and to furnish them with skills to cope with the problems they face. The objective of this project is to develop, test and implement an identical 1- semester extracurricular programme to give necessary leadership and intercultural communication skills to female cadets. With an eye to do this, it intends to design a syllabus and to import it to the Leadership and Management curriculum of maritime faculties to help prospective female staff cope with the hardships they are likely to encounter in seagoing services and maritime jobs and to make them realize themselves to the full extent. It also aims to increase the number of women in maritime jobs and, by this way, to raise awareness for the presence of women on-board the ships, to create a women-friendly atmosphere which requires elaborate behaviours and language, to encourage appropriate behaviour among personnel and to foster good camaraderie. It will also provide the participants with awareness and cultural considerations with regard to gender.
The project which was carried out by four partner countries, which are Turkey, Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, addressed all the stakeholders in the maritime sector, including students and instructors from not only maritime schools but also from other higher education institutions including naval academies, representatives from shipping companies, maritime & port authorities, maritime industry or naval defense system and profit and non-profit organizations in the sector. It addressed a total of more than 3000 people.
There took place 4 multiplier events in the project. Each included a workshop related to the main theme of the event. In addition to the multiplier events, the project had four Learning/Teaching/ Training Activities which were in parallel with the main theme of the preceding multiplier event. They were planned as 2 intensive study programmes and 2 joint staff training sessions. They brought added value to the main objective – the educational network – by providing the opportunity to test and evaluate the developed “Gender Identity Management and Leadership in Maritime Professions” common syllabus.
All intellectual outputs, multiplier events, intensive study programmes and short-term joint staff training events in the scope of the project were realized successfully.
A Charter which consisted of the papers prepared within the frame of the project was prepared. The papers in the Charter analyzed multi-dimensional aspects of women integration in the maritime professions. The charter revealed measures needed to bridge the gender gap in order to ease the access of female officers and managers onto the maritime labour market and naval defence occupations.
Apart from the Charter, the partners developed the “Gender Identity Management and Leadership in Maritime Professions” common syllabus which was based on the educational requirements extracted from the survey. The educational management of the syllabus – prerequisites, learning objectives, overall workload (lectures, seminars, projects, individual study), assessment of learning outcomes and references were jointly agreed upon.
Last but not least of the results is MENTORESS virtual network, which is hosted by MARPLAT, a product of another European funded project. It has established an efficient media for communication within the partners and for the dissemination of the project’s results. It has also included the educational references for the syllabus designed. Moreover, the virtual network allows on-line course for Gender Identity Management and Leadership in Maritime Professions.
The project has impacts on participants, participating organizations, target groups and stakeholders at local, regional, national and international levels. The first impact is increasing diversity awareness and awareness about the women in the maritime professions. The impact has already been stated positively by relevant stakeholders who attended the activities and reported that they had effectively benefited from them.
The Project is foreseen to have a great impact on the equal chance for women to be employed in the sector. On the completion of the project and after making the outcome available to all the parties concerned, more women are expected to be encouraged to take part in the maritime sector and they will have the necessary intellectual background to cope with the problems they are likely to encounter. This will help the number of women in the maritime increase in time, and all maritime sector will benefit from the increase in the workforce, for they will have the chance to select the most suitable candidates for the vacant positions. This will eventually give way to an increase in the welfare of society.

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 144110 Eur

Project Coordinator

T. C. Piri Reis Universitesi & Country: TR

Project Partners

• AKADEMIA MARYNARKI WOJENNEJ
• Nikola Yonkov Vaptsarov Naval Academy
• Academia Navala “Mircea cel Batran”