Page 22: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2021)

PROFILES IN TRAINING “You had all sorts of people that would challenge you in every space when it came to your education. In contrast, by the time

I was leaving (seafaring), a ship double the size and with a wider scope of operations had half the crew.”

Seafaring, and the way in which seafarers were trained, was changing rapidly.

“In my training days as a cadet, the chief of? cer recognized his/her role as a trainer, and made the effort to manifest that role,” said Dr. Manuel. “In contrast, my last commercial ship was a big container RoRo ship that was on a very tight sched- ule, quickly in and out of ports with lots of work for all. It was dif? cult to create an atmosphere for training, for cadets in particular, and even sometimes for the of? cers.”

The Tech Transition

Today is a transcendent period in maritime history, as decar- bonization, autonomy and automation, and digitalization all conspire to help shape the near- and long-term future for the way in which the world moves the vast majority of its goods.

Training, too, is at a crossroads, as owners, maritime edu- cation and training institutions and seafarers alike depend on increasingly sophisticated simulation technology to help teach skills that were once the province of learning by doing at sea.

“Today there has been a transition to using technology more and more to aid training,” said Dr. Manuel. “Simulation has be- come a greater point of emphasis, and there are ships today that even have simulators onboard speci? cally for training. The em- phasis on onboard practical learning is being challenged because the ? delity of simulators is improving. One can gain competen- cies related to many practical tasks, particularly in the context of bridge work, on shore, in a school, which was hitherto only possible onboard ship. This kind of onshore exposure makes it easier when you are onboard the ship. You can use the ship to train on other things that are not possible in simulation. Never- theless, it can be argued that many parts of onboard training re-

World Maritime University

Take 30 Minutes for the MarTID Survey

For the past four years, WMU, Marine Learning Systems and New Wave Media, publishers of Maritime Reporter & Engineering News, have been engaged in collecting data from ship owners/operators, maritime education and training institutes and seafarers, a non- commercial endeavor that is available for free, to all, upon publication.

“The Maritime Training Insight Database (MarTID) ? lls a void that’s been in existence for quite some time. There’s no real context within which you have this kind of data where we are trying to collect the insights from those diverse stakeholders,” said Dr. Manuel. “They bring their views so we can better understand some of the issues that are not addressed by legal convention. For instance, training budgets: What kind of speci? c learning activities are being employed? What’s the trend in, for example, online learning in terms of training for the seafarer?”

With COVID still raging globally, the 2021 MarTID survey is arguably more important than ever, and this year there is a special section of the survey that is dedicated to COVID.

“The idea is to have a repository of data that allows us to analyze trends, inquire into best practice and freely share that best practice, because this is a non-commercial, not-for-pro? t endeavor,” said Dr. Manuel. “With this we can learn from one another and have this kind of discourse that has the aim of improving training, and thereby improving conditions in shipping safety, the IMO goals, and the global maritime goals. This year, in particular, we are keen to hear from all stakeholders about how training has been affected by COVID.”

Take the 2021 MarTID survey of maritime training practices:

Vessel Operators: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MarTID2021-Operator

METIs: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MarTID2021-METI

Seafarers: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MarTID2021-Seafarer 22 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News • May 2021

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