PJMCC Holds the Fourth Quarter General Membership Meeting for 2009
January 19, 2010 – The Philippine-Japan Manning Consultative Council, Inc. (PJMCC) had its Fourth Quarter General Membership Meeting for 2009 at the Assembly Hall of the JSU-AMOSUP Mariners’ Home.
First in the agenda was the reading and approval of the minutes of the previous meeting held on October 28, 2009. The JSU-AMOSUP Training Levy Fund (JTAF) project, among others, was given much attention. The JTAF various training programs and activities sponsored for the cadets are as follows: Utilization of Training Equipment or Simulator, IMMAJ-PJMCC Cadetships Training Program, Oily Water Separator Course, and Instructors’ Training for Management Level Courses.
The more important part of the meeting was the laying out of PJMCC’s new initiatives for 2010. This year, the council will pursue a Maritime High School Project, a Cadet Morale Development Program, and a Maritime Faculty Development Program.
The Maritime High School Project is rooted from the continuing demand for qualified and competent Filipino seafarers in international shipping. It aims to ‘increase awareness and develop interest among high school students the advantages of a seafaring career and to propose to the Department of Education the adoption of a national policy to develop and establish regional maritime high schools in the country.’ To date, the project has been approved by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), through the office of Undersecretary Antonio Inocentes. PJMCC Execom, together with CHED, is now devising and mapping out the project’s initiation as well as implementation.
The Council also ‘aims to promote good relationship between the IMMAJ-PJMCC Foundation, Inc. and its sponsored cadets – both MAAP and non-MAAP cadets’ starting this year. In order to establish such a relationship, PJMCC shall conduct several activities through the Cadets Morale Development Program. It will help ensure that cadets are introduced to the corporate culture of their sponsor manning agents and principals early on in their maritime education.
Lastly, PJMCC would like to ‘make a full contribution to the strategic goals of maritime education and training institutions’, thus the proposal of the Maritime Faculty Development Program. The program will help existing faculty members have ‘further training in order to make them better managers of their programs and to improve the quality of the cadets and trainees graduating from the schools and training centers.’ This program will be instigated following the Training Project for Management Level Deck and Engine Officers where PJMCC has been accredited by the Maritime Training Council to organize and offer free to its members the IMO Model Course 6.09, Training for Instructors and IMO Model Course 3.12, and Training for Assessors.
Others matters such as the re-scheduling of the Anti-Piracy Summit, the Japan-Philippines Tripartite Cooperation for Seafarers’ Development and the Migrant Workers Act of 1995 were briefly discussed.
The meeting was adjourned after the presentation of the Balitang Marino website, the official news and information portal sponsored by PJMCC for the Filipino seafarers onboard Japanese owned vessels.
By: CreativesAsia Company, Inc.