Page 39: of Marine News Magazine (February 2020)

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INTERVIEW “When I started here, [training] was based on mentoring and shadowing.

Since then, all of the training, mentoring and shadowing has been standardized. Today we have three mates that do all of the training for new marine employees to ensure that training is as consistent as we can possibly make it.” – James C. DeSimone,

Deputy Commissioner,

Ferry Division, New York City

Department of Transportation,

Staten Island Ferries crew set about making changes, from the foundation of Staten Island Ferries owns and operates its own simula- a new safety management system (SMS) that took nearly tor, with another due to enter service soon, that is geared 18 months to devise and implement, to a top to bottom toward bridge resource management (BRM) and elec- review of maritime training and education. tronic chart display and information system (ECDIS) “When I started here, [training] was based on mentor- training. It seeks to maximize its training return by, for ing and shadowing,” said DeSimone. “Since then, all of example, out? tting the new simulator with the actual the training, mentoring and shadowing has been standard- equipment that will be featured on the newbuilds. It also ized. Today we have three mates that do all of the train- sends crew to SUNY Maritime for training as needed, ing for new marine employees to ensure that training is as with MITAGS carrying the heavier workload for Staten consistent as we can possibly make it.” Island captain and assistant captain training courses in

Standardized training for Captains and Assistant Cap- and out of the simulator.

tains is docking in every slip – from Manhattan to Staten “MITAGS has the Navigation Skills Assessment Pro-

Island to the organization’s maintenance piers – on every gram (NSAP), with all of our operating of? cers partici- class of ferry and then signed off on by the captains. pating,” said DeSimone. In today’s world, before anyone

In addition, Staten Island Ferries has worked with Ma- gets moved up to an assistant captain or captain, they must rine Learning Systems on a blended learning program. complete the NSAP program in addition to evaluations “John Garvey and I were sitting at a conference presenta- from other captains and administration.

tion given by Murray Goldberg, CEO, Marine Learning “When it comes to promoting a captain and assessing

Systems, and when he was done John and I looked at each their skills, human evaluation is subjective, and some of other and said, ‘This is exactly what we’re looking for,’” re- that’s ok,” said DeSimone. “But we were looking for a so- sulting in a new blending training platform for new deck- lution that would be as objective as possible.” NSAP, com- hands and mates. bined with human evaluation, provided the solution.

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