SHANGHAI: Graduates of maritime-related university programmes have become a hot commodity in Shanghai, home to the Chinese mainland's biggest port, as the city's booming shipping industry struggles to find enough qualified workers.

Shipping companies were chasing after students with marine-related majors at a recruitment fair earlier this month at the Shanghai Maritime University (SMU). The fair lasted only an hour and a half, at which point most of the students who had attended had received job offers, though many of them will not graduate for another six months.

Xie Yiwei, a marine engineering senior, said he had spent just a few minutes talking with the recruiter from Shanghai Jinjiang Shipping Corporation, and the next day he was notified that he had been hired.

"Nearly all of my classmates who were looking for a job got offers," he said. "Finding a job does not seem to be hard for us."

Once he graduates, Xie will be responsible for repairing and maintaining ship engines.

Some companies are so hungry for talent that they started contacting students even before the recruitment fair.

"Some recruiters came to our dormitories to promote their companies, and some kept handing out business cards to us even when we were having classes," said Gao Yang, another student at SMU.

"Most of these recruiters want to attract students by publicizing the high wages they are offering," he added.

Gao, a navigation major, got a job as a ship pilot. He and his classmates have been learning techniques to steer ships and most of them will go on to become navigators and future captains.

Shipmen and other professionals in the shipping industry are in great demand. Both Xie and Gao should both receive a monthly salary of at least US$1,000 during their first year's internship, which is much more than the average Chinese college graduate can expect to earn right out of college.

"The city has really speeded up the development of its shipping industry. But we have not expanded our student base or the size of our faculty. The gap between supply and demand in shipping talent is widening," said Liu Yan, deputy director of the Student's Affair Office at the SMU.

She added that the high cost of educating qualified shipping professionals would make it difficult for her school to expand.

Tang Yichi, a senior HR manager at Shanghai Yuanyang Shipping Company, which is part of COSCO, one of the country's leading shipping and logistics companies, said he had noticed the demand for talent in the shipping sector.

"A lot of shipmen and engineers leave their jobs because of the hardships associated with working on a ship, and the number of new graduates with maritime majors is not enough to meet our growing demand," he told China Daily. "This labour shortage will probably continue for some time."

"Shipping companies now have to compete to find qualified professionals. Competition has become especially intense among small-sized shipping businesses," he added.

(China Daily 12/18/2006 page3)