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For seafaring occupation,  theoretical training starts on land, and continues at sea practically. It is open to continuous development. It is fun, because you can learn many things through experience at sea, but it is a difficult job, as well. The main condition to do this job properly is a good education. As Turkey, we are in a very good position in maritime education. We have universities, colleges and vocational higher schools providing education with high quality. When we take into consideration 30,000 students studying maritime, we can see that such a big potential exists in very few place.

When we look at the numbers of seafarers serving at merchant marine fleet in the world, Turkey ranks 7^th after the Philippines, Ukraine, Russia, Indonesia, China and India. Although there are more than 30,000 unlimited officer shortage at the world's merchant marine fleet, the number of seafarers having Turkish harbor identification card is given in Table-1 according to the qualifications. Accordingly, the total number of officers having unlimited license is 12,493. The total number is below 10,000 after the number of inactive personnels is deducted. Especially the number of unlimited second engineer/machinist is not sufficient for our country's need, but this gap closes day by day. 

Table-1 Number of unlimited officers having Turkish harbor identification card

We have mentioned about Piri Reis University founded by IMEAK DTO and the quality of its education in the previous pages. There are many valuable universities and faculties in Turkey. For example, Istanbul Technical University (ITU) is the apple of our country's eye, and it is one of the oldest universities in Turkey. It was founded in 1884.

ITU Faculty of Maritime was opened under the name "Leyli Tüccar Kaptan Mektebi"(Captain Merchant Schhol for Boarding Students) as a boarding school of the Naval Academy at Istanbul Heybeli Island on December 5, 1884. Afterwards, its name was changed as Milli ve Hususi Ticaret-i Bahriye Kaptan ve Çarkçı Mektebi (National and Special Shipping Captain and Engineer School) in 1909, Âli Deniz Ticaret Mektebi (Axalted Shipping School) in 1928, Yüksek Deniz Ticaret Mektebi (Higher Shipping School) in 1934, Yüksek Denizcilik Okulu (Higher Maritime School) in 1946, Denizcilik Yüksek Okulu (Maritime Higher School) in 1981 and ITU Faculty of Maritime in 1992. As the oldest and rooted civil maritime school of Turkey, ITU Faculty of Maritime has three departments, two of which providing active training and one providing service lessons. The education language is English. The faculty provides education to meet the shortage of the world's shipping fleet in qualified labor force at high level. After English preparatory education, 4-year (8 semesters) undergraduate level education is provided at the university. In addition to the "Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering Undergraduate Diploma", students successfully passing the Seaman Competency Exam are awarded with the "Unlimited Watchkeeping Officer" Certificate of Competency at the Maritime Transportation and Management Engineering Department. In addition to the "Marine Machinery Management Engineering Undergraduate Diploma", students graduated from the Marine Machinery Management Engineering Department and  successfully passing the Seaman Competency Exam are awarded with the "Unlimited Watchkeeping Engineer" Certificate of Competency. ITU Faculty of Maritime has two international joint engineering programs that it conducts with SUNY (The State University of New York, Maritime College) with double diploma certified by YÖK (the Council of Higher Education). Students graduating from Marine Machinery Management Engineering Department are awarded with Marine Machinery Management Engineering Diploma of ITU and "Marine Operation-Engine License" of the State University of New York, Maritime College.

ITU, Faculty of Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering has a long past, too. "Mühendishane-i Bahri Hümayun" (Imperial School of Naval Engineering) which was founded in 1773 gave graduate of Shipbuilding Engineers with its mathematics and geometry based education, and schools such as "Bahriye Mektebi" (Maritime School) and "Sefain-i Ticariye" (Shipping) were founded in time to meet the military and civil education need.

Ata Nutku and Muhittin Etingü, first graduates of the Maritime School, Shipbuilding Department in 1923, were the leaders and doyens of Turkey in shipbuilding education. It was decided at the School Education Board meeting (equivalent of today's Senate of Professional Engineering School) dated 1943 that the Shipbuilding Professional Engineering Department be opened, and the education period be 6 years. The name of the Professional Engineering School was changed as Istanbul Technical University in 1945, and it was under the Faculty of Mechanical Engineering. Faculty of Naval Architecture & Ocean Engineering was founded by the academic staff instructing at both desks of the department in 1971.

The history of Yıldız Technical University goes back to 1967, too. There are high quality and important educational institutions both providing education in engineering and training seafarers.