The purpose of this study is to identify methods for attracting more students into maritime colleges, for making sure they remain happy, satisfied with their decision and finally for enabling them to have job security. At International Maritime College Oman (IMCO), the Deck Officer program is a field of study that incorporates the ancient knowledge and techniques in navigation with the latest information and technology in the maritime industry. The industry requires officers who are well trained and capable of working as professionals on board vessels. The goal is to attract more students into the maritime industry, to ensure their achievement in future and to make sure they are happy with their choice to join the maritime industry. For the purposes of this research, a questionnaire about deck cadets’ experiences of work and life at sea, with thirty-one questions, was prepared, based on the authors’ experiences, and distributed to deck cadets studying in International Maritime College of Oman (IMCO). It was answered by sixty deck students in years two, three and four. The students were of both genders and from various countries including Oman, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar and Egypt. The age ranges varied between eighteen to twenty-five. The main problems adversely affecting the students’ happiness and satisfaction were found to be related to loneliness and emotional insecurity at sea, resulting from inadequate opportunities for communication with family and friends, as well as uncertainty about employment prospects. Colleges need to focus more on supporting cadets’ emotional well-being. Shipping companies also need to play a greater role in reducing cadets’ uncertainty by sponsoring them, by providing guarantees of employment and by looking after them well at sea, especially by ensuring availability of cheap internet.

The ASEAN charter is a treaty established by ten member countries in the Southeast Asia founded on December 2008. Prior to the establishment of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) charter, the Maritime Professional Education and Training Development Program was facing a challenge of disruptions relative to maritime events. Due to the disruptions of maritime events, challenges such as gap in international relations, lack of database integration in the field of maritime education and training, lack of knowledge transfer and no effective and proper framework of future development particularly in the areas of maritime education and training among the ASEAN countries existing. The goal of this paper is to motivate professionals and the relations society to collaborate in the Maritime Professional Education and Training Development: Today and Tomorrow, to be able to fill the gaps presented to this paper. In order to ensure this study can be completed in the right ways and times, the Critical Path Method (CPM) is used. As a finding of this study, all professional maritime members are expected to strengthening the international professional relations in maritime education and training system among the ASEAN region.

A warehouse is more than just a place to store goods but also creates a time utility gap between production and consumption that is important in the development of trade and commerce. Malaysia has a high aspiration to be the most popular gateway in Asia. However, Malaysia Productivity Corporation has claimed that particularly in efficiency and productivity aspects, the warehouse industry is less incline to innovate and make improvement to increase. There are ten failure factors that had been identified during literature survey affecting to the warehouse operations efficiency. Therefore, this study intends to analyse and select the main failure factors that mostly affecting the warehouse operations efficiency. A Fuzzy Analytic Hierarchy Process (FAHP) technique has been used in this study to calculate the weight value of each variable through a pair-wise comparison method. The finding highlighted the four main failure factors which are ‘equipment’, ‘environment concern’, ‘special handling consideration’ and ‘human factor’ that influence directly to the warehouse operations efficiency. This paper has contributed to a new knowledge of complex warehouse operation area with recommendations action that shall be taken to manage the possible risk in future, which will also contribute to achieve the government goals.

The manner in which education will be delivered in the 21st-century has often been debated. Various literature has agreed that an interactive teaching and learning method is required in parallel with the emergence and development of cyber technology. The conventional method of teaching should be reconstituted to emphasize aspects associated with innovation and creativity in attracting the attention of students in learning. Despite the current Malaysian education emphasize the learning features that include 1) Creative thinking, 2) Critical thinking, 3) Collaboration, 4) Character and 5) Communication. However, 21st-century approach requires exposure, skills, and creativity to be implemented by the Malaysian educators. Therefore, the aim of this study is to propose a new maritime interactive teaching model towards a Sustainable Development Goals (SGDs) and industrial revolution 4.0. Three (3) secondary schools around Terengganu in Malaysia were chosen to participate in a pilot case study. The results of the study found that more than 90% of students now understand more about the maritime industry based on their acquired knowledge and education in this area. While, more than 70% of students described that this method of teaching is appealing. Maritime education innovative learning through an interactive learning model was successfully achieved based on the findings of this study, called the ‘Mariner’s Fantasy’. Additionally, through the inspirations of IR 4.0 and the Malaysia Education Development Plan, 2013-2025, the study has demonstrated the usefulness of the Maritime Education Innovative Learning (MEIL) program through an interactive learning method, in enhancing the delivery of maritime education by adopting an effective teaching-based approach.

The challenges faced by the Malaysian shipyard industry had led to the failure of local shipyards in catering to the demand of ship owners. The shipyard industry had recorded the least contribution (1.0%) to the world shipbuilding order book and had caused inconsistencies in the Malaysian shipbuilding ship repair (SBSR) industry’s demand and supply market. The objectives of this study had been to identify the factors that had contributed to the challenges faced by the shipyard industry in Malaysia, and to rank them according to their priorities. The factors of these challenges had been identified by using the cause-and-effect analysis method and were further illustrated in the form of an Ishikawa diagram. Subsequently, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method was applied to determine the weightage of the priorities. The results had shown that ‘Market’ (41.66%) had been the most challenging aspect faced by the shipyard industry in Malaysia from all the five factors studied. As such, this research would help shipyard organisations to effectively prioritise these challenging factors as a way of sustaining their businesses and affecting the economic contribution from the shipyard industry.

Recently, the migration of refugees has been drastically increasing and became a global issue which indirectly affects the shipmasters, authorities and shipowners during rescue operations. The objective of this paper is to study the challenges or difficulties in rescuing refugees at sea from the perspectives of shipmasters, authorities and shipowners in Malaysia. In this study, the key challenges faced by these three groups of individuals are collected and classified based on the primary data reviewed. The interview sessions were conducted with selected expertise and the data collected are analyzed based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process (AHP) or precisely the pair-wise comparison methods. Through the calculations, the challenges are ranked from the most important challenges to the least important challenges. Furthermore, the data is analyzed by using expert judgments focusing on the relatively most important challenges faced by the three groups of individuals. Finally, the most important challenge faced by shipmasters is the safety of ships and crews, while for authorities, the most important challenge faced is delays in the initiation of rescue operations. For ship-owners, the most important challenge faced is time sensitive cargo loss. Ultimately, two suggestions have been proposed to encounter the most important challenge faced by these groups.

Human error with regards to ship handling is the main cause of maritime accidents. The error happens because of the psychological problem of distraction. Despite the use of modern equipment, standard working procedures and competent crews, still accidents occur because of the physical and psychosocial stresses during the working period on board the ship. This creates undesirable results such as injuries, ill health and even loss of life. The aims of this study are to analyse the possible root causes for distractions and the affected areas for three groups of Malaysian seafarers, 1) Senior Deck Cadets, 2) Senior Deck Officers and 3) Junior Deck Officers. A Technique for Order Performance by Similarity to the Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method has used for ranking the alternatives in the order of how affected they are. A Malaysian seafarers’, Senior Deck Cadets (SDC) has recorded as the most affected by distractions when they are engaged in the ship’s operation. The outcome of this study will help both seafarers and shipping companies to establish some solutions around this matte.

The global economic and financial conditions in 2010 and 2011 were positive and the business trade grew at about twice of the rate of that in 2009. The container shipping players started to enjoy a new chapter of international business trade having struggled to operate their vessels since 2008. So we now have to consider if the shipping business will return to its old strategy? What will happen to the container shipping sector in 10 years from now still remains uncertain. Recently, the uncertain situation globally has been giving shipping companies in difficulty the opportunity to make decision as to whether it is necessary to use super slow steaming for containerships. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyse the necessity of super slow steaming on containerships despite such uncertainty. A Fuzzy Rule-based Bayesian Reasoning method has been used which incorporates the membership function and 14 selected nodes. Finally, the outcome of this study is 48 rules which have been proposed to assist shipping companies in their decision making processes when dealing with the dynamic business environment. Each rule gives a clear-cut understanding of the result which is able to be applied to real situations the containership industry faces.