Outcomes and Reports

Progress Report April 2002 / July 2002
Progress Report July 2002 / April 2003
Progress Report April 2003 / April 2004
Work in progress from April 2004
Available reports

Progress Report April 2002 / July 2002

The start-up of the activities has been planned during the first meeting staff in Athens (May 2002), according to the original project scheduling. In order to reach the first general goal - benchmarking on curricula development - both Italian and Greek teams have planned to visit Odessa, collecting some pieces of information about the local graduate and post graduate system from the Ukrainian colleagues. During the Italian visit in Odessa we have successfully met the local colleagues mainly involved in the project. According to previous stated requests, the Ukrainian team has produced some statistical data and graphs that we have analysed and discussed together. The city of Odessa is very rich of graduate and post graduate institutions (more than 20, either universities or academies): every university has at least two or three faculties or specialized courses and there is a sort of competitive system from the point of view of quality and costs. A large number of students - estimated by the official data in about 110.000 units - are attending graduate and post graduate courses. Some universities are very prestigious and expensive and so many students try to apply. Every academic institution has a real autonomy, at least from an organizational and economical point of view. In this frame, ONMU has some competitive advantages because it is the only institution with maritime graduate and post graduate courses. Inside ONMU there is also a recent new Faculty of Law, which is becoming more and more prestigious, whose mission is to prepare students not only to the legal professions but also to general management. The planned managerial training centre could attract a part of this post graduated people. During the meeting with ONMU colleagues it has been decided to improve the collection of qualitative and quantitative data, in order to evaluate the input and the output of educational activities. A specific topic we have discussed about was the features and the opportunities of the post graduate job market. According to some first estimation, about 40% of ONMU post graduated people get a job in private or public maritime companies quite immediately. In spite of this positive trend, many of them should be interested to improve their knowledge through some more high level specific training activities. On the whole there is a diffuse interest in improving contents and teaching methodologies in the field of marketing and management.

For the next months ONMU team must improve, using an approach more systematic, the qualitative and quantitative analysis of the post graduate output, also on the basis of a scheme that we have decided to realise. More recent and comparative data should be collected either in Odessa or in other cities of the region. More detailed and systematic efforts shall be done for preparing the analysis of job market and of job opportunities offered by the companies operating in the maritime field in Ukraine.

For starting the project we also had a meeting with the port authorities of Ilyichevsk. In this occasion we got confirmations of the strong, good relations among maritime sector agencies and the ONMU training activities and we have found a real interest in improving cooperation with Western port authorities. We started in planning a meeting with port authority of Genoa, for the next autumn-winter.

In order to assure to the main target group of the Project (teaching staff of ONMU and managers of Ilyichevsk Port) adequate, wider and experienced training on competences in the field of the maritime professions (such as telematic logistics, multimodal transport and so on), and just as proposed in the Application, managers and functionaries of Genoa and Athens (Piraeus) Port Authorities will be involved, both in mobility flows in Odessa and in assisting and training in Genoa and Athens. A preliminary agreement already has been taken together with the President of the Genoa Port Authority (Mr. Giuliano Gallanti) in order to plan joint actions for the next Winter 2002/2003.

Progress Report July 2002 / April 2003

After the first year of the project, the Consortium reached the stated goals at a satisfactory level. 1) In order to achieve the Project objectives, the work group started with a general analysis on ONMU academic curricula and organization. About this topic it's relevant to note that - in comparison with E.U. systems - the Ukrainian academic system has a wider range of degrees, with very different opportunities of specialization: from a quite basic level till a very high level. As a consequence, it is not easy to identify the input/output profiles of the students who are attending the single academic courses, and it is necessary to improve a little bit these aspects.

The start up of a Training Centre in Maritime Management during the second year - which will include some experimental courses and the editing of new textbooks - will be a real opportunity to promote some common standards among the academic and not academic partners.

After a wide ranging survey on the benchmarks Master Degree in the field of maritime specializations in the most advanced E.U. Universities, and a continuous inquiry into the needs of the ONMU staff, the work group setup some typical curricula to apply in ONMU.

2) In the original application, the modernization of teaching has been thought as a combination of theoretical and practical issues, with a particular attention to the demand in the maritime field. Therefore we decided to identify this kind of demand with an analysis of job opportunities offered by Companies operating in Southern Ukraine, considering:

the official figures of the Labour market in Ukraine, according to the public statistics;
the legal regulation of the Ukrainian labour market;
employment security and social policies;
general trends of the Ukrainian labour market;
facts and figures of the Ukrainian labour market in the maritime field;
answers to a questionnaire prepared by the work group and submitted to some local authorities and entrepreneurs.

After the heavy decline in the years immediately after the collapse of the former USSR, the Ukrainian economy has recently begun to show evidence of recovery - even if little. GDP grew 6% in 2000 and 9% in 2001. In 2000, it was estimated about Euro 32 billion. The official unemployment rate was 11.8% in 2001, almost the same in last four years. Analysts should be anyway careful dealing with such data on the labour market. Ukraine's economy is in a so difficult transition, that sometimes there can be a gap between official figures and real life both in bad sense that in good one.

The shadow economy is widely diffused, and this is why the official standards are unable to explain the increasing diffusion of durable consumptions and nice quality goods among the new middle class. According to some international and local observers - directly involved in business activities - the economic opportunities in Odessa Region are growing up; the past lack of capitals and investors is positively changing, with good perspectives also for the labour market and employment, especially for high skilled experts in business administration, finance, international law, maritime management, labour management.

Since the collapsing of the Soviet Union's economic system, the specific maritime sector has been affected by many problems like:

the downsizing of the national fleet, actually close to disappearing;
the condition of the surviving ships, too old to be competitive and safe;
the situation of public finance, not allowing the government to spend money to support the fleets and marine transport policies.

Academics, consultants and businessmen agree on the fact that, in ten years from 1992 to 2001, the workforce in the Ukrainian maritime field has been cut by 2/3, decreasing from 400.000 to 130.000.

Crew members of national shipping companies were 80.000 in 1992 and have been reduced now to about 20.000 or 22.000. Take for instance the dramatic downsizing of the "Black Sea Shipping Company", which in 1991 let thousands of specialists unemployed. Troubles have been caused also by the breaking of Azov Sea and Soviet Danube Shipping Companies. Because of the Balkan Crisis in the '90s, about 30% of sailors from Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company, "Cherazmorput", and Fishing Shipping Company "Antarktika" have lost their job. Many maritime workers are now abroad. About 55.000 are the sailors currently working for foreign companies.

One of the main maritime institutions in the Odessa region is our consortium partner "Ilyichevsk Sea Commercial Port", which was employing about 10.100 people in December 2002. Answering directly a questionnaire, they declared that:

From December 2001 to November 2002 were hired 760 persons (480 man and 280 women), from 18 to 50 years old, higher education, secondary education or technical studies. Concerning their positions, they were engineers and other technical workers, port workers (longshoremen) and other working specialties.
From December 2001 to November 2002 were fired 972 persons (599 man and 373 women), from 20 to 65 years old, higher education, secondary education or technical studies. Concerning their positions, they were engineers and other technical workers, longshoremen, metal workers, drivers, etc.
In 2003 they could lay off other people, depending on their age, health or their personal desire - or also for violation of labour discipline.
In 2003 they want to recruit from 120 to 130 people, possibly 100 men and 30 women, from 18 to 50 years old, higher education, secondary education or technical studies. Concerning their positions, they should be engineers and other technical workers, longshoremen, workers on repair and maintenance of handling machinery.

Considering the poor condition of official statistics and of the difficulty to carry out surveys "on the field", to draw the patterns of the future employment opportunities in the Ukrainian maritime sector it is possible to look at the perspective employers, their size and activity.

One of the main employers in this field is still "Black Sea Shipping Company", the historical State-owned shipping company, which was created from a previous company founded in 1833 - also after this heavy downsizing. Another important one is the stock company "The Ukrainian Danube Shipping Company". Other smaller companies are "Ukrainian Sea Shipping Company" and State Shipping Companies "Ukrferry" and "Ukrtanker".

An important role in the maritime labour market can be played by special kind of agencies, the so-called crewing companies. Their activity is controlled by national and international marine laws. Up to now, in Odessa there are about 200 crewing companies - while the total number in Ukraine is about 500. Through their activity, approximately from 20.000 to 30.000 sailors work on the ships which belong to different foreign shipping companies.

It is a matter of fact that the activity of crewing companies in Ukraine during last years provided stability to its marine business and created effective conditions for the revival of Ukrainian merchant fleet in the future.

The main results of the activity of crewing for workers are:

to get a job with high salary (in comparison to the survival minimum paid in the country);
to enhance professional skills and the possibility of career;
to get job experience up to international standards;
to improve the knowledge of English.

Besides, the Ukrainian crewing system allows:

permanent legal income of hard currency into Ukraine and growth of investments in the domestic economy;
preservation of professional staff at maritime universities in Ukraine;
accounting and control of Ukrainian residents working abroad.

One of the main problems among young Ukrainian sailors (cadets) is the absence of enough seagoing practice. Many crewing agencies demand from sailors not less than two years of seagoing practice to be considered for a job position. In such a situation, it is reasonable to apply the practice of long-term contracts of sailor (cadet) with the same ship-owner beginning from 3 or 4 year of study at the Marine Academy. This is an experience which has now been introduced in solid Ukrainian crewing agencies like "Unicom", "Intermarine", Adriatico-Brig", "Ukrcrewing" and others.

Opportunities for employment are expected from activity of the seven commercial ports of the Region of Odessa: Odessa itself, Yuzhny, Ilyichevsk, Bilgorod-Dniestrovsky, Ismail, Reni and Ust'-Dunaisk. The sea ports are State property enterprises. They are part of the Ministry of Transport of Ukraine and administratively under the State Department of the Sea and River Transport of Ukraine.

Finally, a perspective employing sector is shipyards for ship building and repairing. The marine economic complex of the Region includes five ship repairing plants: Odessa SRP "Ukraina", Odessa SC "SRP-2", Ilyichevsk SRP, Ismail SRP and Kiliysk SRP.

From a general point of view, during the 1st year it has been possible to collect enough information on educational and economical background of Odessa Region, even if we would have improved them from a qualitative and quantitative point of view. In any case the meetings and the seminars organized with the academic staff and with the Ilyichevsk managers have offered valid learning and solid agreements for developing our cultural and professional exchange. As regards the involvement of the target group, the issues of the several seminars and workshops held and coordinated by the EU staff have been chosen from a wide set of disciplines. Those kept on "E.U. policies on ports and maritime transports", "Management of sea transport activities", "Port Authorities", "Port strategic planning", "Privatization processes" and "Port and city: social and economic frames" have to be pointed out. A good check has been achieved by the Ukrainian involved staff, both teachers and managers: the retraining activities will be very fruitful in the development of the new courses and of the Training Centre. Moreover it has deemed necessary to decide to forecast a special planning office inside the future Training Centre with the aim to monitor the Labour market and the development of both supply and demand on high skilled maritime experts.

In the last months of the Project year, the identification of the existing courses has began, in order to restructure them and to introduce new courses; some analysis of curricula in occupational trends perspective and analysis of teaching programs and methods have been carried out, by joint sessions to point out the new teaching programs. The "Equipment" intervention of the Grant has been useful, by the buying of new "preparatory oriented" books provided to the beneficiary University.

During the first year, in addition, a big effort has been devoted to the activities of the Outcome n° 2 "Retraining of the teaching staff". With the help of both East West and vice versa Mobility flows, the upgrading of the knowledge and skills of the ONMU and Ilyichevsk staff involved in the Project has been carried out by means of:

seminars on specific topics as "Maritime management", "Port organisation", "General framework of the Ukraine and E.U. relationships", "Development of international trade in fields of Ukraine interest as agricultural produce", and so on;
meetings with the managers both in Genoa and in Ilyichevsk ports;
consulting of managers and ONMU staff about the most recent developments in the field of their specific competences.

In the carrying out of the Project activities, the Consortium has kept into duly consideration the previously received suggestions and recommendations, concerning the development of the pilot training course already in the Winter of 2003, in order to timely ensure some evaluation and review processes within the project life cycle. A satisfactory agreement on the next work plan to carry out in the next months has been reached with the ONMU, as main involved "actor" in the Outcome. The agreed workplan confirms the specific meaning that the Consortium, and mainly the beneficiary University, have assigned to the pilot course in the frame of the "market oriented" activities of the Partner State University.

As regards the dissemination actions, they will be carried out during the 2nd and 3rd Project Year; as regards those planned for the next year, an intermediate Dissemination Conference will be organized in Genoa, during the period November / December 2003, in cooperation with the Port Authority of Genoa. Adequate contacts will be taken with Universities, Institutions and private Companies: shipping companies, Port Authorities, ship agencies, crew companies, representatives of National Government of Ukraine.

Progress Report April 2003 / April 2004

In the second project year the bulk of the crucial outcome and activities of the contract were concentrated, i. e. the setting up of the new training centre and the starting up of the pilot course for training of specialists in sea transport management. Indeed, after having collected enough information on both the local labour market and the benchmark experiences in international outstanding universities, the central goal of the project was to implement the new curricula and to launch a first pilot course. Most of the foreseen outcomes and activities were instrumental to such a major objective: the conclusion of the teaching staff retraining, the creation of new courses with the help of new teaching materials, the improvement of IT tools with the necessary retraining of administrative staff and last but not the least the creation of a new training centre, with its staff, premises, and equipment.

The project is achieving its objective as set out in the original application.
The key successes of the project are demonstrated by the practically full achievement of all the following outcomes and activities: 1. Benchmarking on curricula development: completed in due time; 2 Retraining of teaching staff, included the final workshop in EU: completed, with a short delay; 3 Improvement of information technology: completed, with a short delay; 4 Creation of new courses: completed, with a short delay; 5. Training of the administrative staff: completed, with a short delay; 6 Development of new teaching materials: completed, with a short delay; 7 Implementation of the new curricula: completed, with a short delay of about one month due to delays in shifting of responsibilities; 8 Dissemination activities: completed, with a short delay; 9 Project management: completed in due time.
The extent of involvement and support, both academic and institutional, of the consortium partner institutions was quite satisfactory: the cooperation of the western partner (Panteion University of Athens) was particularly useful and outstanding, and the support of the beneficiary ONMU University was complete as well: even though there was a short delay in the shifting of responsibility, the new Rector Prof. Morozova and the new responsible teacher the Vice-Rector Merkt were very cooperative and fully involved in the project activities both in Odessa and in Genoa.
The major lessons we have learnt from this year's activities are: 1. the success of a project depends not only from formal but also from personal relationships among the responsible people of the different partner institutions; 2. should a change in the beneficiary university responsible people occur, a strong effort by the general contracting university is necessary in terms of personal contacts with the new management.

One of the most important tangible goal of the project was the one concerning the building of the Permanent Training Centre at ONMU; this goal has been completely achieved by means of the carrying out of the Outcomes 3 and 5 (improvement of Information Technology and training of the administrative and technician).

This Centre nowadays works like a permanent service unit inside the ONMU; it has been constituted by Official Act of the Rector and by Decision of the Academic Council; subsequently it has confirmed by the Ministry of Education and Science of Ukraine, Department of the Higher Education, according to the usual rules applied for the constitution of new units / structures in the Universities. The Centre has a specific charter, rules and official recognition in the framework of ONMU. It is going to achieve the following finalities:

to activate masters, training and retraining courses and every other training and teaching activity according to the guidelines of ONMU;
to address its activities to graduates, workers, public and private institutions and companies;
to carry out a consulting / support service both to other structures / departments of ONMU and to external institutions;
to promote research and study activities in the frame of the labour market (i.e. permanent observatory on the employment in the Odessa region);
to contribute therefore to the continuing vocational education process and to participate to the "possibility of occupation" of the population.

The achievement of the setting-up of the Centre, as far as concerns the training of the staff, has been carried out by the following two paths: to setup some rules on the Training activities management: financial, administrative, bookkeeping and so on. Supporting documents of this outcome are the printing of a handbook / guidelines on the management, reporting and administrative monitoring of the training activities according to the "European Social Fund" schemes. This document has faced some management matters like: Business and exposure plan (both estimated and final one), Official books and registers of the Course (Classroom participations by tutors, students and teachers), Stages organization, Management of the teaching material, Direct and additional costs accounting, Monitoring and auditing activities ("ex ante", "in itinere", "ex post": before, during and after the training activities).

As regards the dissemination actions, an intermediate Dissemination Conference has been organized in Genoa in 17th - 18th December 2003, in strict cooperation with the Port Authority of Genoa. By means of this cooperation, satisfactory contacts have been taken, from both the beneficiary University and the Illyichevsk Marine Trade Port, with North-West Italy Universities, Chambers of Commerce of the Genoa region, Port Authorities of the Tyrrhenian Sea, Genoa's shipping companies, ship agencies and crew companies. In consideration of one of the main intangible outcomes of the project (to secure for ONMU the skills necessary to prepare packages of "Training market oriented"), it's important to remind the outcome achieved through the stipulation of a partnership agreement between Odessa National Maritime University and Illyichevsk Marine Trade Port concerning the entrustment to ONMU of the whole training and retraining of the Illyichevsk staff.

Work in progress from April 2004

The latest project activities have been focused on the following matters:

Development of the teaching materials. Adequate material has been collected and produced; a good multidisciplinary analysis has been secured. The new textbooks will be used both in the courses and during the delivery of the training courses.
Agreements to be stipulated between the Odessa National Maritime University and the Illyichevsk Marine Trade Port concerning the implementation of the training courses. One of the main outcomes of the Project can be considered started up to its fulfilment: the Pilot Training Course has been delivered from March to July 2004 by means of a total amount of 168 teaching hours plus 10 hours of stage. After that, the top management of ONMU and IMTP has began a joint study oriented to the stipulation of a "business" agreement between Odessa National Maritime University and Illyichevsk Marine Trade Port.
Setting up of the Training Centre: administration, facilities, equipment. The tender procedures have been fulfilled at the end of March 2004; the sale contract has been stipulated among the parties (Rector of ONMU, Director of DISPOS and legal representative of the Company "Ukrtechsnab"). The equipment has been actually available, in the frame of the Training Course, for the lessons foreseen in the middle of April.

Available reports

The following teaching, training and methodological material can be consulted by the scientific coordinator of the Project (Prof. Oleksander Balobanov, , according to the current Ukrainian laws and rules on copyright.

Short handbooks, lectures notes and guidelines:

Logistics: freight, transport and shipping (G. Malindretos);
European regimes and policies concerning shipyards (M. Vadrachanis);
Introduction to the legal framework of international shipping law (I. Varotsi);
International legal framework of multimodal transport (I. Varotsi);
Economics and port law (E. Musso, L. Carpaneto);
Transport management (I. Moskvichenko, O. Kibik, E. Trostyanetska, P. Makushev);
Transport logistics and intermodal transport (G. Malindretos, O. Balobanov, M. Postan, I. Moskvichenko, I. Varotsi);
Maritime transport economics (V. Zhykhareva, I. Moskvichenko, O. Kibik, A. Kolodin);
Marketing of maritime transport (V. Zhykhareva, I. Moskvichenko, O. Kibik, A. Kolodin, S. Onishchenko);
Port management (O. Balobanov, G. Pusanova, I. Varotsi);
Essence, basic elements and processes of marketing activity of shiping companies (O. Balobanov)
Management of training activities according to the European Social Fund standards (A. Musaio).