GEMES Project: Vocational Seamanship Training Program Supported by European Union

Abstract

The aim of this review article is to introduce Project “Gemes” and to raise awareness about seafarer shortage and unemployment matter in Turkey. The Project “Gemes”, which is the Turkish acronym for “Vocational Seamanship Training for Proving Unemployed Youth Employment”, was a project partially funded by EU and successfully completed by Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey. The Project focused on providing jobs onboard ships for a number of primary school graduates, unemployed young people between ages 18 and 24. The project mainly aims at making some contributions to the reduction of the regional unemployment in the medium and long term. Within this scope, another goal was to open up an opportunity for the work force and the employers in the region to meet and contribute to their coordination. The project was also designed to provide training program with high standards to bring up qualified employees in the maritime industry and set a model for curing the employment downfalls of the industry. In this context, it was initially intended to provide 120 beneficiaries with training and to ensure employment for a specific percentage. As planned during the preparation of the project, trainings are continued with the contribution of the infrastructure gained, for the sustainability of the project.