The vital interface Michael Grey, MBE

摘要

We need, said Branko Berlan of the International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF), as he spoke at IMO's 2015 World Maritime Day symposium 'a proper relationship between men and machine'. It was a phrase that made me sit up, something rather more incisive than well-rehearsed arguments about why young people turn their backs on marine industry careers and why maritime awareness seems to be fading among the general public. The symposium, on maritime education and training, was predicated on the statement that 'shipping's future needs people'. (This might seem self evident, but it is not so obvious that enough high quality people are seeking out the industry fortheir career). Berlan's intervention, which in some respects, deserved a symposium all of its own, recognised the relationship between the people who worked on and around ships, and the ships they served. It also recognised the need for this relationship to be balanced.