鑒於本國籍商船甲級船員嚴重匱乏，教育部遂核准了國內三所海事校院開辦「學士後海勤第二專長學士學位學程」，其畢業生未來可能成為我國甲級船員的重要來源。本研究旨在探究上述學生上船工作意願之影響因素，作者以善用機緣論、職業興趣理論、以及需求層次理論等當作研究視角，並藉由質性取向之深入訪談法蒐集研究資料。研究發現，大多數受訪者因對原本的工作不甚滿意，亟欲在職涯發展上尋求突破，而在偶然的機緣下獲知上船工作可賺取優厚薪資，遂毅然地放棄原本專長轉而學習海勤專業，期盼經由航海職涯以滿足自身需求。值得觀察地，其強烈上船工作意願似乎為本國籍甲級船員不足的窘境帶來一線希望，然而海上職場特性也是他們無可迴避的挑戰。

Because there is a serious shortage of ship-officers in the shipping industry, Ministry of Education approved the establishment of “Post-baccalaureate seafaring as the second expertise program” of three maritime universities (or college) in Taiwan whose graduates may become the important source of future ship-officers in Taiwan. The main purpose of this study is to investigate the factors affecting the willingness to work aboard of students mentioned above. Based on Planned happenstance theory, Personality-job fit theory, and Maslow's hierarchy of needs, this study used qualitative-oriented in-depth interviews to collect research data. This study found that, most of the participants in this study were not satisfied with their current jobs and they were eager to change their career paths. By chance, they learned that working aboard can help them earn a generous salary, and thus gave up their original expertise to learn seafaring profession from scratch. They expected that seafaring career can meet their own needs. The strong willingness to work aboard exhibited by them seemed to create a hope for the situation where there is a serious shortage of ship-officers in the shipping industry, while the specific nature of seafaring profession would be also their unavoidable challenges.