<p>It is immaterial whether they couldn’t find jobs or were uninterested in doing so. The simple fact is that they didn’t. My question is what has happened in the last five years or so that causes jobs to be available now that were not available then. Someone pointed out earlier on this very thread that shipping companies are not showing up at job fairs because they have no openings. There have been several conversations on this very forum over the last year or so stating that the US Flag jobs are just not there. By ‘requiring’ graduates to go to sea, how many are forced to take seasonal tug and ferry jobs that will not be available to them the following year? Are they displacing students from the state maritime schools who truly want to sail? Are the companies downgrading experience requirements in order to capture this new cheaper mandatory asset? Forcing the more experienced who have completed their KP obligation to have to go offshore for jobs?</p>
<p>My question is how can a school double the supply to a customer who has not doubled his requirements without upsetting the apple cart?</p>
<p>Someone mentioned creative thinking. My rather naive understanding is that the US Flag fleet is abysmal. Maybe we need to force our lawmakers to increase the requirements of US Flag carried cargo rather than force jobs where they don’t exist.</p>