Training and Career Growth
Cruise ship crew are hired into specific departments and receive extensive job-specific and maritime safety training, beginning weeks before they board. The industry offers a unique environment for career growth and advancement, with continuous training, leadership development, and opportunities for promotion in a high-quality, supportive workplace.
Onboarding Training Program
Most cruise lines begin onboarding up to two months before a crew member boards the ship. New hires undergo extensive training that covers job-specific skills, maritime safety and health procedures, pre-arrival compliance requirements
Onboarding Training & Safety Drills
Once onboard, crew members continue training through safety drills, SOLAS training, emergency procedures, and department specific hands-on learning
Continuous Learning
To support career advancement, crew members often receive leadership and supervisory training, cross-department skill development, certifications, and training
Career Pathways
Cruise lines are known for promoting from within, and many offer structured career development programs, mentoring and coaching, and opportunities to transition into shoreside roles
Crew Training
Crew are hired for a specific department such as hotel services, engine or entertainment. They receive training in the skills needed for their job, as well as specific training related to maritime health and safety. Substantial training takes place before they join the ship on their first contract, either in classrooms, online or via apps. An extensive onboarding program begins nearly two months before a new hire steps foot on a ship.
Career Growth
Working on a ship is a journey in travel and career growth. On a cruise ship, crew have opportunity to learn the skills needed as they pursue opportunities for promotion, including leaderships skills. The cruise industry strives to provide a high-quality work environment for its seafarers by offering ongoing training and career advancement. Few industries have the amount of career opportunity as the cruise industry – where there is a lot of focus from within in terms of career advancement.
“A career on board our ships can be life-long and rewarding. We seek to offer our crew a defined career pathway with internal mobility, meaning that they can develop and grow with us, experiencing many different departments on board, sailing in different regions around the world as well as now, with us, across two distinct cruise brands.”
Ilaria Wambach
Head of Crew Experience, MSC Cruises
Life After Cruise
Cruise ship jobs also provide skills applicable outside of the cruise industry. Electricians, plumbers, salespeople, and IT experts gain skills that they may easily transfer to land, and the same is true on the hotel operations side where crew may transfer from cruise to jobs at hotels, resorts or restaurants.
Career Highlight From Laundry to Senior IT Officer
“I started my career in 2014 as a laundry attendant, because I was eager to work on ships, for a U.S.-based company, and was happy to take that role, even with my previous background in IT,” says Zaini Saputrea, 32, Senior IT Officer for Carnival Cruise Line. “After three years, I was able to complete all the necessary requirements for a department change and began working in IT onboard. I am so happy in this role. In fact, in 2022 I was the first team member in Carnival’s history to be nominated as Team Member of the Year.”
