Seafarers’ profession in the eyes of post-apprenticeship cadets: From imagination to reality

Seven factors influence professional identity: self-image, social recognition, job satisfaction, social relations, attitude toward change, professional competence, and expectations about the profession in the future. This study focuses on the cadets’ view of the seafaring profession as their identity. Because the subject of this research is at the formation stage, the scope of this research is the professional identity formed in cadets on three factors commonly found in students: self-image, social recognition, and hope in the future. This study adopts a qualitative approach by using online semi-structured interviews for data collection. The researcher tried to understand the participants’ perceptions of the seafaring profession from a self-image, social recognition, and future expectations. Narrative analysis techniques are used to analyze data to draw conclusions. The result shows professional identity construction begins from the cadets’ self-view on the seafaring profession. Next, internalization of the social character on the seafaring profession is developed during the apprenticeship, where situated learning took place within the community of practitioners. Furthermore, through the self-internalization processes, cadets perceive the seafaring profession as an ideal profession to achieve their goals, predominantly to achieve a faster promotion, obtain an excellent salary, and retire early.