Ship Officers and Marine Pilots

How to become a Marine Pilot

Official Chinese title (2022 occupational classification): 船舶引航员

Guides ships into and out of port and through difficult waters, manages pilotage and gives technical support and advice on pilotage.

Main tasks

Guiding ships into and out of port and through rivers, straits, channels and other difficult waters, and berthing and unberthing them
Maintaining pilotage system facilities and finding and fixing faults
Managing pilotage and organising training and emergency drills
Advising on port and waterway construction and public safety on the water
Taking part in emergency response and rescue for ships and ports
Filling in and keeping pilotage logs and records, writing reports after accidents or near misses, and taking part in or helping with maritime investigations

Ways in

University: Engineering degrees, Offered by 105 universities in China Related undergraduate subject classes in the Ministry of Education catalogue (2025): Transportation (0818); majors such as Transportation, Traffic Engineering, Marine Navigation, Marine Engineering, Flight Technology, Transportation Equipment and Control Engineering. Matched to the occupation by Peernovo.
National qualification: Licence to practise: Seafarer Qualification (including fishing vessel crew). You need this qualification to work in the job. Listed in the national vocational qualifications catalogue (国家职业资格目录, 2021) as Seafarer Qualification (including fishing vessel crew) (船员资格（含船员、渔业船员）), run by Ministry of Transport; Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs. Peernovo links it to this occupation.

AI and this job

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Who does this work

The census group Aircraft and Ship Technical Personnel holds 0.02% of everyone employed in China; 7% of its workers are women (2020 Census).
43.1% are under 35, 46.7% are 35 to 54 and 10.2% are 55 or older. The middle age band is 35 to 39.
Census figures for the whole mid group (2020 long-form sample), not for this job alone.

Questions people ask

How do I become a Marine Pilot?

Ways in include: Engineering degrees.

Will AI change the work of a Marine Pilot?

Generative AI can do relatively little of this work, by the ILO's global estimate.

Sources

National Bureau of Statistics of China: China Population Census Yearbook 2020, long-form tables 4-6 and 4-7 (employed by occupation mid group, sex, age) (2020 Census long form (10% sample)), retrieved 4 October 2026
International Labour Organization, Generative AI and Jobs: A Refined Global Index of Occupational Exposure (ILO Working Paper 140, Gmyrek et al.) (ILO Working Paper 140, May 2025, Annex Table A1), CC BY 4.0, retrieved 4 October 2026

Sources: Occupational Classification of the People's Republic of China (2022 edition, public consultation draft), Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, State Administration for Market Regulation and National Bureau of Statistics; Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, 2025 enterprise pay survey information; Guangzhou Human Resources and Social Security Bureau, 2025 labour market wage prices; National Bureau of Statistics of China (www.stats.gov.cn), 2020 Population Census yearbook; Ministry of Education, vocational education major profiles (2022 revision) and undergraduate major catalogue (2025); Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security, national vocational qualifications catalogue (2021); O*NET interest scores (CC BY 4.0); ILO global generative AI exposure index (CC BY 4.0). Figures processed by Peernovo. English text, translations and the matching of occupations to ISCO-08, majors, degree fields and qualifications by Peernovo.

Descriptions and tasks are Peernovo's own words, written from the facts in the Occupational Classification of the People's Republic of China (2022 edition). Job titles and work types are the classification's own.

Updated 4 October 2026