Page 18: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (March 2006)

by Henrik Segercrantz

At the end of January, a new training facility for

Wärtsilä Land & Sea Academy (WLSA) was inaugu- rated in Turku, Finland. As part of the Service business of Wärtsilä Corporation, the Land & Sea Academy today operates three Academies that provide a wide range of training for clients, seafarers and staff world- wide. The training facilities are based in Ft. Lauderdale and in Subic Bay, in the Philippines, and now also in

Turku. In addition to these Academies, primarily prod- uct training is also provided at the locations of the pro- duction facilities such as in Trieste, Italy, and in

Winterthur, Switzerland, but also in Lahore in

Pakistan, Khopoli in India and in Pnyu, China.

At the inauguration, Tage Blomberg, Group VP and

Head of the Service Division, noted that Wärtsilä is in the business of offering complete competitive value added training for its clients. "We are not in the busi- ness of standard certification," he said. According to

Jari Ullakonoja, Director of WLSA, the aim is to pro- vide a global network of 'one-stop-shops' to cater for the training need of Wärtsilä's customers, including tai- lor made courses. WLSA offers various levels of out- sourcing possibilities for the shipowners for their sea- farer training. The training services are built up based on a competence management process, with evalua- tions of needs, existing competences, individual devel- opment needs and confirmation. There is a computer- based Competence Management System built to the requirements of the ISM Code and the STCW-95

Convention (the 1995 amendments to the International

Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and

Watchkeeping for Seafarers) which the clients can use as an extension to their own crew management system.

In Subic Bay all the training including maritime courses is provided in-house, whereas in Turku some of the courses are arranged in co-operation with

Sydväst Maritime, a local nautical school for educating master mariners and watchkeeping officers and watch- keeping engineers, which operates its own full mission bridge simulator.

The courses provided vary somewhat at the different locations. In all, they cover training of the operation and service of Wärtsilä's products, courses on Marine engineering on all aspects of engine room operation and marine equipment operation, Electrical and elec- tronics and control system courses, Power plant opera- tion, Maritime safety courses, Security courses, Search and rescue, Navigation, Cargo management, Tanker courses for handling oil, chemicals, and liquefied gas,

Radio, Medical aide as well as various management courses.

The Bridge Resource Management courses are based on Scandinavian Air Lines' own training concept for their flight crew. Wärtsilä has developed this concept further in its Engine Room Resource Management courses. To qualify as an instructor for these courses, one has to receive training at the SAS Flight Academy.

WLSA has Maritime Training Center certification 18 Maritime Reporter & Engineering News

Training & Education

New Training Facility for Wärtsilä's Land and Sea

The new training center in Turku will give training to some 2,000 people this year through some 200 sep- arate courses. The Turku facility is equipped with state-of-the-art PC workstation engine room simulators.

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