The paper compares two basic approaches to education and training of seafarers: (a) the academic approach based on the traditional system of education as applied in well-established scientific disciplines and (b) the approach promoted through STCW 95 convention based on more or less encapsulated modules of knowledge and professional skills. The strengths and weaknesses of each approach are considered from several most important viewpoints (the future seafarer, government decision-makers, educational institutions) and in light of the experience gained during recent changes of the maritime education system that took place in Croatia over the last two years following forced institutional transition from the more academic to the more professional-oriented MET system. At the end of the paper a proposal has been made concerning the combined approach capable to satisfy the needs of the future seafarer, state administration and shipping industry and at the same time being perceptive to future international harmonization among states at different levels of industrial and social development.

Tehnologija prometa i transport