A study on the career choice model of navigational undergraduates in Mainland China

• Main Authors: Lin, Wan-Ping, 林婉萍
• Other Authors: Guo, Jiunn-Liang
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 2015
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/30404828467840095984

碩士 === 國立臺灣海洋大學 === 商船學系 === 103 === The competitive work environment around the world has caused many industries in Taiwan to face a variety of challenges regarding development in recent years, one such industry is seafaring. Because of the influences of a rapidly changing society, higher living standards, low birth rates and other factors, working as a seafarer has lost its appeal to undergraduates in the navigation and marine engineer fields in Taiwan. The shipping industry is facing difficulties because of the extreme lack of talents with sea-going experiences and a knowledge gap is growing between new crew members and experienced ones. Furthermore, undergraduates are losing their interest in seafaring, which has only made this situation worse. The number of seafarer on merchant ships in Taiwan has been decreasing year by year. The number of Chinese seafarers on merchant ships has been increasing up from 200,000 to 570,000 within 4 years. Moreover, in recent years, the shipping companies in Taiwan have particularly favored seafarers from Mainland China. Therefore, this study intends to investigate the willingness to work aboard of navigational undergraduates in Mainland China, as well as the factors affecting it. Based on social cognitive career theory, this study used questionnaire to collect data from navigational undergraduates at Wuhan University of Technology. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothesis model to explore the influencing mechanism of seafaring intentions between navigation and marine engineer undergraduates, as well as in-depth comparisons of these two preferences. The research results show that (1) the preference of navigation undergraduates towards “seafaring intentions” is directly and indirectly impacted by both “self-efficacy” and “social context”. It means that as a seafarer's confidence stronger, their willingness to work on board will significantly enhance. Besides, family, teachers and friends for their support have an impact on the willingness to work through self-confidence as a seafarer. (2) the preference of marine engineer undergraduates towards “seafaring intentions” is significantly and directly impacted by “social context“. It means that the higher the degree of support to get from friends and relatives, the higher their willingness to work on board. The research results suggest that maritime university should hire full-time teachers with sea-going experiences in order to provide constructive opinions about the seafaring to their students. Furthermore, teachers should not only help students acquire professional skills, but also actively and effectively build their confidence in becoming a qualified seafarer, thus gradually helping them to steer their dreams towards the seafaring and encourage them to join the shipping industry. Based on the findings, the authors conducted in-depth discussions. Moreover, we hope to provide references of employing seafarers for Taiwanese shipping companies.