SEA
Link, Inc
"Linking people to maritime jobs with a future."
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Alaska Seafarers In The News
Alaskan displaced fishermen and veterans whose skills and work ethic are deeply valued by maritime employers have been able to seek an alternative career path and training in maritime through this decade-long initiative. Also, transitioning foster youth, disenfranchised individuals, and Alaskan natives throughout our state have been actively and successfully recruited, trained, and employed in the marine sector through this award-winning program. The public/private/labor partnership that has evolved inot the Ketchikan-based SeaLink, Inc., has among the highest placement and graduation rates of any Alaska Department of Labor training program in our state. Nearly 400 Alaskans have been affiliated and benefited from one or more elements of this initiative and found family-wage employment as a result of these efforts. The Twenty-fifth Alaska State Legislature commends all the participants
in the successful initiative.
Successful SEA Link Trainees highlited in Alaska DOL Annual Report: Read the full report by clicking
here...
Luke – A Dislocated Fisherman Trains as Merchant Mariner “It’s definitely better than what I was making fishing,” adding that his job now includes overtime pay, a term that has yet to be recognized in the fisherman’s lexicon. Luke Bradley, once a fisherman from Haines, Alaska, lived a dream for six years, gillnetting sockeye salmon in Lynn Canal, before shifting to what he thought was a more secure job as a deckhand on salmon tenders for two of the largest seafood processors in Alaska. One went broke. The other kept cutting its contract fee with his skipper. Because he could no longer support himself, Luke quit fishing and says he’s never going back. Luke made an unusual return to Southeast Alaska in April 2005 as a crewmember on the Alaskan Explorer, British Petroleum’s new $250 million oil tanker, during its maiden voyage en route to pick up its cargo of North Slope oil in Valdez, Alaska. While the Alaskan Explorer was docked in Juneau the local media understandably took special interest in Luke as he is the only Alaskan out of 24 crewmembers onboard. Luke, now 24, received job training as a participant in the $8 million National Emergency Grant (NEG) for workers dislocated from Alaska’s commercial salmon fishery. Luke was determined eligible under the salmon fishery NEG at the Juneau
Job Center and was referred through the Seafarers’ Education Alternative
Link (SEA Link Inc.) for training at the Seafarers International Union’s
(SIU) Paul Hall Center for Maritime Education in Piney Point, Maryland.
After receiving his initial training as an Ordinary Seaman, he is earning
a base salary of $2,200 a month plus an equal amount in overtime pay
along with paid vacations and health benefits. Luke was also featured in a Juneau Empire article:
read here...
Also see Commissioner O'Claray's Letter of Recognician to Governer Murkowski read here... Kent – Out-of-Work Logger with a Learning Disability Finds Success Through Job Training Kent, a Ketchikan, Alaska resident, dislocated from the timber industry and suffering from a learning disorder, was provided Adult Basic Education, prevocational training services and job training through a WIA Dislocated Worker program grant to SEA Link. Kent’s dream was to become a merchant marine. Kent went to the sub-recipient’s office each morning four days a week for three hours to improve on his math and reading comprehension prior to going to his part-time employment at a local grocery store. He kept up this study regimen for four months until he was ready to pass the required tests for admittance into the SIU Unlicensed Apprenticeship (UA) training course. The UA course consists of hands-on training and classroom work covering deck seamanship, rules of the road, marlinespike seamanship, helmsman ship, cargo handling, safety, fire fighting, emergency procedures, first aid, anchoring and mooring, and aids to navigation. After 12 months, Kent graduated and is now permanently employed with Maersk Lines Ltd. as an Ordinary Seaman working in the deck department. Read the full report by clicking
here...
Read more about SEA Link, Inc. in the Press Click here... SEA
Link Inc. (Seafarers Educational Alternative Link) |
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