Market competitiveness of Croatian seafarers

Competitiveness of Croatian seafarers can be determined according to the criteria of economy, competence and numerosity. It is very challenging to assess the quality of education and training as well as the influence of seafaring tradition in coastal countries all over the world in order to be able to claim that certain nationality seafarers are more competitive than others. The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification & Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) is applied globally with the aim of having the same quality of seafarers, the only difference being the fact that certain seafarers acquire knowledge faster and more successfully than others. It is hard to say that the system of education and training in one country is better than in another because each signatory to STCW Convention should have a standard education procedure setting the minimum needed seafaring competency. This paper presents an analysis of the current structure and number of Croatian seafarers as well as that of seafarers in other coastal countries around the world, as well as an analysis of the most prominent indicators of competitiveness such as current and the most common terms of agreement and wages. In addition, an assessment of the demand for seafarers in the world and in the European Union has been made as well as the assessed competitiveness of Croatian seafarers on the world market.