The Bahamas Maritime Cadet Corps , which was first established by The Bahamas Ministry of Transport in 2004 to introduce high school students to employment opportunities in the maritime sector and build national capacity, is pleased to announce that more graduates than ever this year have chosen to enter a career in shipping related industries.

Many of this year’s 97 graduating students are opting to join the Royal Bahamas Defence Force or are considering further maritime education.  A large number of the Nassau-based students are intending to study at the Bahamas-based LJM Maritime Academy which offers a full range of certification services for maritime professionals. The BMCC programme is also offering Standards for Training and Certification for Watch-Keepers (STCW) approved basic safety training in order to provide the graduates a strategic advantage when applying for some shipboard positions.

In response to the rising interest in maritime, The BMCC is aiming to increase the number of centres offering the programme including in schools on additional islands throughout The Bahamas.  It is expected that cadet numbers with these added centres will be in excess of 400 in the coming years.

Captain Dwain Hutchinson, Managing Director and CEO of The Bahamas Maritime Authority, said: “The increasing levels of interest in a maritime career is extremely good news for The Bahamas but also hopefully indicative of increasing interest in our sector worldwide.  We are encouraged and pleased to note that numbers of female students in the programme have remained high with 53% of graduates being female, demonstrating that our sector’s commitment to diversity and UN Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality) is paying dividends.   We remain appreciative and wish to recognise The Bahamas Shipowners Association, individual shipowners and other industry stakeholders who have continued to offer their support of The Bahamas’ capacity building efforts through the BMCC programme.

”The entire BMA teams sends their congratulations to this year’s graduates.”