Goltens, the independent ship repair company, has confirmed that its newly established representative office in the Philippines is the first step towards an ambitious development plan to attract young people to a marine engineering and technical career.

“The current skills shortage is being felt across the shipping industry. Training a younger generation is paramount to meeting the needs of the ship repair industry and enabling us to retain our leading position as a specialist, independent ship repair company,” said Paul Friedberg, President, Goltens Worldwide Services.

According to Friedberg, the company has been assessing the possibility of training young engineers and technicians in the Philippines for the past 24 months.

“The opening of the Philippines office is the starting phase of a planned worldwide deployment of skilled Filipinos within the Goltens Group and the development of a future specialist workforce pool for our 22 offices and repair stations around the world.”

During the past five years, Goltens has established seven new global repair centres, lifting its annual ship repair revenue from USD 90 million in 2005 to approximately USD 200 million in 2010. Though feeling the financial crunch in 2010, the company sees a growing demand for specialist repair and maintenance services amongst shipowners and ship managers.

Tags: Goltens