It went bye bye like mitags.
MITAGS still exists…
A govt grant payed for tugboat u.
Tugboat wages are far too low today. In terms of purchasing power, tug wages are lower now than they were 25 years ago. The last thing we need is tug companies using government subsides for a Tugboat U. program to flood the market with even more new towing licenses to keep wages low.
I didn’t see anything in the article about MITAGS. Tugboat U was at GMATS.
GMATS was a KP adventure that was good in practice, but benefited the common employee. The KP overseers surely couldn’t promote a program that isn’t solely to benefit the KP deep draft mantra.
GMATS was paid by government, but all attendees paid tuition. I was under the.impression it actually made money for the.school.
As far as Mac is concerned the participating companies realized that they will be needing Mates ( real trained, experienced Mates) soon as us old timers start croaking. They approached GMATS and they custom tailored a curriculum taking into account the guys work schedule. It was a great idea. Unfortunately the participating companies didn’t use intelligence in deciding which candidates to send. About 50% are not… How shall we say… Appropriate! No, competent. No, I would best say: most weren’t excellent deckhands, so they weren’t good prospects as Mates. But the office NEEDED them. And those that applied generally didn’t understand the difference between what is required and what they ‘thought’ being a mate entailed. Although the partying was freaking awesome!