European Union has 68,000 km of coastline which is home to 1200 commercial seaports. Including the EEA members, the coastline covers 185,000km. Almost half of the EU’s population lives less than 50 km from the sea. The maritime area under the jurisdiction of EU Member States is larger than the total land area of the EU. More than 37,000Km of inland waterways connect hundreds of cities and industrial regions in the EU. 13 Member States have an interconnected waterway network.

Taking a point of reference in these statistics, the importance of the EU’s blue economy is undeniably fundamental to its sustainable growth and therefore the need of a well-prepared labour force is self-evident. The blue economy represents roughly 5.4 million jobs and generates a gross added value of almost €500 billion a year.

Maritime education is not new, with higher secondary and tertiary educational institutions offering professional education programmes related to maritime industry and the blue sector, as well as maritime academies and sailing clubs offering paid learning programmes and qualifications for people of all ages.

However, this project is innovative as it will develop a preparatory vocational course in maritime literacy, based on non-formal learning methodology, that targets learners with fewer opportunities who are not yet ready or abled to enter mainstream secondary, higher secondary or tertiary education.