The Gulf of Guinea Maritime Institute (GoGMI) has hosted an Ocean Career Fair for High School Students to enable them to learn more about navigating maritime career paths from industry experts.

They are doing this in collaboration with the Development of Ocean Technical Capacity with African Nations (DOTCAN) Institute of Nova Scotia.

The various seasoned maritime experts interacted with the school children on basic information about the maritime sector spanning areas like fisheries, seafaring, and cargo operations among others.

The fair also gave the opportunity to key organizations within the sector to showcase their activities and services to the young ones.

According to the Gulf of Guinea Maritime Institute, they are passionate about revealing opportunities within this industry to the youth for the social and economic development of the country and continent.

“We believe young people rest at the fore of advancing the blue economy for Africa. If we are to think of the African situation, what is our major problem? We have high rates of unemployment but at the same time, we also have a large number of youth who are within the entire continent. Africa is known as a youthful continent and we recognize that the youth can be key to developing a thriving blue economy,” Associate Director at the Institute, Stephanie Schandorf indicated.

Similarly, the DOTCAN Institute of Nova Scotia revealed it is also keen on connecting people to opportunities and fostering of knowledge exchange.

A Board Member Responsible for Education, Training, and Outreach at the DOTCAN Institute, Simone Le Gendre says “DOTCAN believes that adolescence is a critical time for someone to make decisions around what path they should be pursuing in life.

Even though students are not in tertiary education, they are at a point where they can make critical decisions about tertiary education. So exposing high school students to the diversity of careers in the blue economy is a good opportunity for not only the students but the country to be developed and invest in the blue economy.”

Former Chief of Air Staff, Air Vice Marshall Frank Hanson who was the Special Guest of Honor, emphasized the need for such programs to inculcate a deep sense of leadership among the nation’s youth.

The various students at the end of the fair expressed enthusiasm to learn more about the maritime industry with a call on the government to include more ocean material in academic syllabi.