New global maritime recruitment platform up and running after extensive testing

Seafarers can easily enter all their certificates and working experience to automatically create a resumé that helps them find jobs that fit their experience.

Deckhands, engineers, navigators, technicians and officers in the maritime and offshore industries perform their profession at a variety of vessels and locations throughout their career. Maritime and offshore crew needs to go through application processes with every new job. Regulations demand specific competences and certificates for tasks on board. Before a seafarer or offshore technician can start a new job, many certificates need to be verified by the employer. Rotterdam-based, globally operating digital tech company Crewlinker aims to take the ‘hassle’ out of this process. 

Crew can upload all their certificates easily; employers can search for the crew they need with all the required competences visible on the platform. The intelligent application provides matching profiles within seconds. Also, many seafarers are not fully proficient in formal English, even while they are fully competent and certified for specific jobs. The platform's format largely takes away this threshold.

“We noticed several problems and complexities with recruiting processes in the maritime industry,” founder and CEO Adam van der Veer of Crewlinker explains. “Employers need to verify that the crew they want to hire, has all the required certificates. After a first contact with a candidate has been established, a large number of emails are exchanged between the crewing agency and the candidate, with all of the stakeholders that need to stay informed about the application receiving copies, too. This makes the process very sluggish and increases the risk of missing required certificates. We provide a platform where seafarers can easily gather and hold all their documentation. Therefore it is really easy for employers to verify if candidates have all the required certificates and documents. This is to the benefit of both the recruiters as well as the seafarers and offshore technicians.”

Crewlinker utilises A.I. to find matches with search queries from employers. Understanding the different types of certificates worldwide and remembering the type of crew that an employer is looking for, the software improves on selecting the best matches. Additionally, Crewlinker is currently developing an extra A.I. functionality that can recognise and interpret photos from paper certificates in all the different languages and as they are issued by institutes around the world. This helps recruiters to automatically validate if a certificate fits their requirements. The A.I. functionality recognizes the type of certificate, the date of issue, and expiry date, saving time and further automating the application process.

For seafarers, making their profile page on Crewlinker is free. Crewing agencies, offshore operators, construction companies, dredging companies, or ship owners can subscribe to search the database for competent crew and to post their vacancies. 

Van der Veer concludes: “When creating a profile on Crewlinker, the level of completeness is shown; the applicant can continue to add relevant information over time, providing employers with an instant overview of the needed requirements. The set-up of the platform is rooted in our wish to make the global maritime labour market much more efficient and our belief that all maritime crew should have an equal chance.”