Mrs Gertrude Ohene-Asienim, Executive Director, West Africa School of Shipping, says there is the need to mentor women on clearly defined long-term career prospects, especially in the marine sector.

She said women needed to be supported at every level of their career, stating that learning was a lifelong experience and should go hand in hand with personal growth.

Mrs Ohene-Asienim was speaking at a symposium organised by the Regional Maritime University (RMU) on the topic: 'The Relevance of Women in Maritime Education and Training: Prospects and Challenges' in Accra.

The Symposium formed part of the 65th Anniversary of the University.

She said mentorship was vital, and that Associations such as the Women's International Shipping and Trade Association (WISTA), Women's International Motorcycle Association, Women in Logistics and Transport and others were to lead in that direction.

Mrs Ohene-Asienim, who is also a Lecturer at the RMU, said, 'the essence of reaching your peak is to help others, and usually, people have the ideas and what they aspire to be, all they need is someone to give them the direction or hold their hands and teach them the way.'

She said Maritime education was expensive because it was a specialised area, indicating that anything that bordered on specialty came with a cost.

'If the University has to get a Simulator to train people, it costs a lot of money, so that is why we are advocating for scholarships for especially women who venture into the technical areas like Marine Engineering, Nautical Sciences and others,' she added.

Mrs Ohene-Asienim advised women to support their fellows in the maritime industry and appealed to them to desist from the unwillingness to help one another.

She said well trained, skilled, and educated human resources were the driving force of the development of an economy and dynamic and sustainable development is not possible without a skilled workforce and women could not be excluded from that.

'A lot has been achieved in recent times but a lot more work needs to be done in empowering women in technical and decision-making roles,' she added.

The Lecturer said there was ample evidence that investing in women was the most effective way to lift communities, companies, and even countries and countries with more gender equality have better economic growth.

He said studies had shown that companies with more women leaders perform better and peace agreements that include women were more durable.

'We need to introduce more maritime courses which are problem solving and industry focused to meet up with current trends and we must focus on innovation and how that can help in respect of Integration of the entire maritime supply chain development,' she said.

She said the country could not award degrees and diplomas without considering vocational maritime certification of which thousands of the women were concentrated.

'We need to identify the knowledge and skills that will be required for the future and fill the gap. We need education that brings creative problem-solving skills with good aptitude for technology,' she added.

Dr Jethro W. Brooks Jr, Acting Vice Chancellor, RMU, said according to the International Maritime Organisation, women represented two per cent of the workforce which equated to 24,000 of the 1.89 million seafarers in the world.

He said out of that, the RMU had trained 67 female seafarers from 2018 to 2023.

The Acting Vice Chancellor said in response, the RMU initiated a scholarship fund drive last year, primarily aimed at bolstering female representation in the maritime industry.

'Last semester, we proudly admitted three female students, and an additional ten have been accepted for the current semester,' he said

Dr Brooks Jr. said this transformation could be driven by students, who were passionate about pursuing careers in the maritime sector and by parents, who encouraged their daughters to venture into the realm of blue-collar jobs with untapped opportunities for everyone, particularly women.

He urged more female students to step forward and enroll as seafarers, thereby reshaping the narrative and rectifying the gender imbalance.

The Acting Vice Chancellor said the modest efforts undertaken by the RMU community would make a substantial impact in enhancing female participation within the sector.'

Source: Ghana News Agency