I. The current talent condition of London international shipping center

London international shipping center is a organic combination of shipping, finance and trade and talent is the key to the development of high-end shipping service industry.

As an international shipping center with unshakable status, London provides international shipping business with wide ranges of commercial services, including financing, insurance, brokerage, law, accounting, vessel inspection, education and publishing. Moreover, its shipping services cluster plays a vital role in the development of the world economy and thus contributes immeasurable resources of income for UK's economy. However, the key to the development of London as an international center is the powerful support from talents. According to the research report of IPSL shown in Table 1, in support of its shipping service industry, the quantity of practitioners of London's shipping industry has been increasing year in and year out.

Table 1: The number of practitioners of London's shipping industry of different years

(Unit of measurement: person)

II. London shipping talent education

It is generally known that the highly developed shipping service industry of London international shipping center is inseparable with its world leading professional shipping service education system. Numerous universities in UK launch courses concerning international shipping service, London Metropolitan University, for instance, has internationally renowned maritime specialty majors like maritime law, international trade and transportation. And almost all universities of UK boast a sound and broadly-covered maritime education system.Greenwich Maritime Institute offers post-graduate education programs in shipping policy and management; Institute of Maritime Law is a world leading center for maritime law education, research and consultation, to name just a few. All these help UK to form a soundly functioning education system for international shipping. In addition, many of the top schools of business, management and law of UK also extend their education systems to shipping education other than general majors. Take the fourth ranking Cardiff Business School as an example, its degree education programs embrace shipping related majors like international transportation, shipping policy and port and shipping management.

It is because of UK's shipping education system represented by its world leading schools of management and business, which specializes in the education of high end talents in shipping service that ensures the unshakable status of London as an international shipping center.