Texas A&M’s Galveston Campus Turns Out Highly Trained Graduates In Lucrative Profession

GALVESTON, Texas – Imagine graduating from college in your early 20s and having a $100,000-a-year job waiting for you.

Sea Aggies from the Texas A&M Maritime Academy at Texas A&M University at Galveston are filling ups classes in dynamic positioning to learn everything they need to know to work in high-paying jobs offshore. Dynamic Positioning, or DP, as it is more commonly called, refers to a computer-controlled system that automatically maintains the position and heading of ships or semi-submersible drilling platforms.

Texas A&M University at Galveston is home to the first maritime academy in the nation to be accredited by the Offshore Service Vessel Dynamic Positioning Authority, or OSVDPA, to provide DP courses.

See a video about it https://youtu.be/G5oG1CZTUjw

Texas A&M University System Chancellor John Sharp said a dynamic positioning certificate from the Texas A&M Maritime Academy allows graduates to make some of the highest salaries of anyone graduating from any of Texas’ colleges and universities, especially when oil prices are high.

“Dynamic positioning class work can help students get some of the most lucrative careers in the already high-paying maritime industry,” said Chancellor Sharp, who oversees 11 universities and seven state agencies within The Texas A&M University System.

Captain Kate Fossati, an assistant marine transportation professor at the Texas A&M Maritime Academy and head of the DP certification course at the Galveston campus, said simpler, five-day DP courses are available elsewhere. But she added that graduates of the shorter course do not get nearly the experience as the cadets who graduate from the Texas A&M Maritime Academy’s 14-week course.

“They are going to learn more and feel more comfortable on a DP vessel coming through a 14-week program,” she said.

Cadet Daniel Rodriguez, a U.S. Navy veteran and student at the Galveston campus, said the Texas A&M certification course has given him much of the confidence and experience he needs to work offshore.

“I couldn’t imagine learning this much in five days,” he said.

DP-equipped vessels have computers that read data from a variety of sensors to control ships’ propellers and thrusters to keep the vessels in position. Vessels with dynamic positioning include: offshore supply ships, drill ships, semi-submersibles, turbine installation vessels, cruise ships, cable layers, dredges, military vessels, heavy lift vessels, dive support vessels and wind farm servicing ships.

About The Texas A&M University System
The Texas A&M University System is one of the largest systems of higher education in the nation, with a budget of $4.7 billion. Through a statewide network of 11 universities and seven state agencies, the Texas A&M System educates more than 153,000 students and makes more than 22 million additional educational contacts through service and outreach programs each year. System-wide, research and development expenditures exceeded $996 million in FY 2017 and helped drive the state’s economy.

Contact: Laylan Copelin
Vice Chancellor of Marketing and Communications
(979) 458-6425
(512) 289-2782 cell
lcopelin@tamus.edu