The Durban University of Technology and the International Maritime Lecturers Association (IMLA), has encouraged women to be engrossed in the Maritime sector.
This recommendation was made during the 23rd Maritime International Maritime Lecturers Association (IMLA) conference held at the Elangeni Hotel, Durban.
Women empowerment, more specially, what can be done by institutions of higher learning to train more women in seafaring studies was one of the issues discussed by delegates at the conference.
The five-day conference, which kicked off on 29 June and ends on 03 July 2015, is being held in South Africa for the very first time. Attending the conference are delegates from Singapore, Slovenia, Germany, France, Poland, Turkey, India, China, Ghana, Kenya and Sweden. Also attending are educators and students from Durban schools such as Sithengile and Zwelibanzi high schools, to name but a few.
From the sociological perspective, Lydia Carol-Dekker, a Social Psychology Master’s student said “When you educate a woman, you educate a nation. Seafaring is a historically male dominated industry with only two percent females (seafarers). There is a great need to expose young women to the Maritime industry as a career option.”
One of the panelists, Silindile Mgaga, who is a Master in Commerce student said, “Universities should create gender based recruitment policy in order to encourage women to study maritime. We are planning to showcase all those pioneering female seafarers in the continent”.
– Mxolisi Ntanzi
Pictured from left: Sindiswa Nhlumayo, Executive Head for the Centre for Maritime Excellence at the South African Maritime Safety Authority, shares a light moment with Professor Suren Singh, the Executive Dean of the Faculty of Applied Sciences at DUT.
