Human Resource and Workforce Readiness Management in Sea Transportation: Cadet Health, Cognitive Load, and Competency Development

Abstract

Sea transportation management depends ultimately on the readiness of the people who operate ships and ports, and that readiness is shaped long before graduation, inside the training institutions that prepare cadets for sea service. This paper examines human resource and workforce readiness management in sea transportation through three interacting dimensions: physical and mental health management, cognitive load management in technical training, and digital-age competency development, using Akademi Maritim Djadayat and Sekolah Tinggi Manajemen Transportasi (STMT) Malahayati as reflective case settings for the period April 2025 to January 2026. Drawing on institutional document review, field observation of cadet training activity at both institutions, and a synthesis of the maritime education and workforce-management literature, the paper finds that health- and well-being-oriented training is comparatively well established at both institutions, cognitive load management is practiced informally but not yet structured around an explicit instructional framework, and digital-age competency development is present but unevenly distributed between the two institutions' differing training emphases. The paper proposes a workforce readiness management framework linking physical and mental preparedness, learning-load management, and digital competency, and argues that maritime training providers function as the first line of human resource management for the sea transportation sector, since workforce quality entering the industry is substantially determined before entry rather than corrected afterward.