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SKY LINE STORY: Joncia Marine Services
-by Armstrong Vaz (Goa)
We are committed to deliver consistent personnel to the satisfaction of our customers and for the continual improvement of the effectiveness of quality management system in our organization. Reads a message in block letters inside the posh cabin of John Dias - chief of Joncia Marine Services - Margao.
John Dias, having his roots in the sleepy village of Sarzora, has come a long way and is not a new face in recruitment on cruise liners. Jobs on shipping cruises are a craze with the new generation of Goan youth. Joncia Marine Services was started by Dias in 1992 on a small scale and he himself handled the recruitment for tankers. Dias earlier sailed as an officer on the merchant navy for twenty years and later made a plunge into the recruiting business.
A life member of Employment Promotion Council of Indian Personnel since 2001, he was till 2003, a recruiting agent for passenger ships Festival Cruises.
He was the first agent appointed for Star Cruises in India and is currently handling the recruiting task for top foreign cruise liners like Costa Cruises, Star Clippers, and Eleysian Cruises, Miami.
Dias did his schooling (as a boarder) at St Joseph High School, Arpora and then finished his college education at St Xaviers, Mumbai. He then served as a senior technical officer at different airports - Kolkotta, Agartala, Patna and Mumbai.
The quality objectives of Joncia Marine Services are to educate and train personnel to meet challenges of the emerging competitive recruitment market and to enhance their competence in our field of activities. The people being recruited are based solely on guidelines provided by STCW 95 and as amended by them from time to time. We are committed to incorporate any changes in the composition of the recruiting criteria, as soon as we are so notified. Reads another notice in his cabin.
On the Goan youths, he mentions that almost all Goan youngsters dream to work on ships but they don't prepare themselves for the jobs. The high level of jobs are there in the asking and our boys should work towards getting these top grade posts rather than merely trying to find an opportunity to step on the ships.
Currently all lower level jobs form majority of the jobs taken up by Goans but Dias himself adds, the higher ends of the jobs are there for the taking. Body mass ratio / index, personality, height, weight, looks and talks are some of the salient features recruiting cruise liners emphasize now while taking new employees on their roll.
There are no short cuts for success and qualified personnel is the call of the cruise companies. John disclosed. He terms the cruising industry as booming industry and local youths should have a clear vision in mind for jobs they wish to take up on cruises.
He also sounded a word of caution on the mushrooming institutes seeking to train youths in the tourism industry and other related trades. The government should check these institutes and frame guidelines in a bid to oversee that quality education is imparted and students and parents get value for their money.
He also emphasized the need for more career guidance camps in schools to guide the students at a tender age. He added that, due to the lack of quality personnel from Goa, boys from outside Goa working in the top grade posts at hotels like Ramada and Marriot are being recruited in the cruising industry as they are more qualified for the top level jobs.
Dias lives a peaceful life. At present, he has been appointed as the booking agent for Super Star Libra - which commences its operation on 2nd October 2005 on the Mumbai-Goa-Lakshadweep waterfront.
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