Maritime digitisation and its impact on seafarers’ employment from a career perspective

This paper discusses the potential implications of maritime digitisation and automation on seafarers’ careers. Maritime digitisation has been driven mainly by the industry that highlights a paradigm shift in ship management and operations (Tester et al., 2017). While the Fourth Industrial Revolution (Industry 4.0) implies the modernisation of work in general, it is anticipated that Industry 4.0 will have an impact on seafarers’ employment on board contemporary ships (Schröder-Hinrichs et al., 2019). Such impact analyses on seafarers’ work are based on future scenarios of maritime industries, however previous analyses seem to overlook seafarers’ and their career trajectories as an important human resource to support the future maritime industries.
In this context, based on an extensive literature review on careers in the global labour market as well as on Industry 4.0 and its impact on jobs, the paper discusses how current career models among seafarers may be affected and what alternatives for employment they might have after graduating from maritime education and training (MET) institutions. The paper presents preliminary remarks on career opportunities for seafarers and possible socio-economic implications on future maritime careers in the context of Industry 4.0. It concludes with a set of agendas to support individuals in this transition.