June 27, 2016

Massive interest in Esbjerg's college of marine and technical engineering

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Karin rix hollander

Karin Rix Holländer

Executive Assistant MA

Demand for marine engineers is on the rise across Denmark, and unemployment among marine engineers is at a historic low. Fortunately, the number of applicants seeking to enrol at marine engineering schools is also increasing – not least in Esbjerg, where the marine engineering college has received a go-ahead from the Danish Government to admit even more students.

Per Jørgensen, President of the Danish Marine Engineers’ Association, has just received the monthly unemployment statistics for marine engineers. The numbers show that the rate of unemployment among Denmark’s 8,000 active marine engineers has come down another notch, despite the growing number of marine engineering graduates.

“We are 127 full-time jobs short, so just about all marine engineers are employed. The unemployment rate is at a historic low: 1.8%,” Per Jørgensen explains and smiles.

In 2004, there were 800 marine engineering students in Denmark. Today, this number has almost quadrupled to 3,000 students spread across the country’s five marine engineering schools. 110 of them are at the Esbjerg branch of the Fredericia College of Marine and Technical Engineering. When it opened in August 2014, the college brought the three-year professional bachelor’s degree programme back to the city. In 2004, the then-Government decided to close the marine and technical engineering colleges in Esbjerg, Aalborg and Odense due to low numbers of students.

More marine engineering students in Esbjerg
Twelve years later, the situation is quite different: the Esbjerg college is in high demand among students, explains Torben Dahl, Principal of Fredericia College of Marine and Technical Engineering’s branches in both Esbjerg and Fredericia. Not surprisingly, he was delighted when, in April this year, Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science Ulla Tørnæs removed the restrictions on the number of students the College is allowed to admit.

“Now we can admit as many students as our Esbjerg capacity allows. We are very happy. In August last year, we had to turn down 50% of the first-priority applicants, which corresponded to 30 applicants,” says Torben Dahl.

“In February this year, we admitted twice as many students to the first semester as we had hoped and budgeted for. We had only expected to set up one class, but had to start two classes to accommodate all 52 students.”

Torben Dahl expects the total number of students at the school to double to 200-250 within the next 18 months.

Demand is driven by technology
The current demand for marine engineers is driven by increasing automation and other technological developments in various industries – and the fact that many industries are becoming aware of the skills offered by marine engineers.

Even though the marine engineering programme is a maritime programme, only about 50% of marine engineers work in the maritime sector, either offshore or onshore. The rest are primarily employed in the service industry, the advisory sector or industrial production, and just over 10% of them work with energy and water supply or refuse disposal, according to annual data from Statistics Denmark.

“While engineers are specialists, marine engineers are generalists with skills in electrical engineering, mechanical engineering and management. They know a bit about everything and differentiate themselves by possessing knowledge about business organisations in general and by their technology optimisation and process automation skills,” explains Per Jørgensen, President of the Danish Engineers’ Association.

“I expect the demand for marine engineers to increase. There are no indications that the technology will stop advancing; we'll only be seeing more automation in future.”

In order to meet demand, the Association has run several campaigns targeting upper secondary schools, vocational schools and those already working as skilled craftsmen, electricians or mechanics. And the current interest in studying at the college in Esbjerg and elsewhere indicates that the campaigns are working.

Students attracted by job security and professional opportunities
Mia Emiliussen, 31, a first-year student at the college in Esbjerg, was especially attracted by the prospect of job security. Eighteen months ago, she left her job as a production engineer, moved from Sønderborg to Esbjerg and went back on student assistance to train as a marine engineer. She also has a student job with Esvagt at the Port of Esbjerg.

“I have a technical background, but a lot of those jobs are being outsourced to countries such as China and Poland, so I wanted to make sure that I will also have a job in ten years. I hadn’t planned on continuing my studies, but even the slightly more technical jobs are being outsourced, so I wanted to safeguard myself,” she explains, adding that she was also attracted by the breadth of the programme and the resulting diverse range of potential jobs.

Kasper Juul, 28, who, like Mia, is in his third semester, was driven by his curiosity and desire to study, having already worked as an electrician for a couple of years.

“I was beginning to get bored with my job as an electrician and with being the guy who was just doing the wiring without really knowing what was going on,” he says.

“My dream scenario is working abroad in the energy sector: in oil and natural gas, energy optimisation or renewable energy such as wind power. My chances at that should be pretty good.”

According to both Mia and Kasper, they are often told by teachers and businesses visiting their school that they are in great demand.

Meanwhile, Torben Dahl is planning the next round of student admissions.

“Last year, interest was so massive that we had to turn down applicants. That had us a bit worried, but we hope to receive the same or a higher number of applications this year. We expect to admit all applicants, but of course there's no guarantee. If we receive 200 applications, we don’t have the capacity – no matter how low the unemployment rate.”

This is a translation of the Danish article published in Port of Esbjerg Magazine 2, 2016.

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