Page 19: of Maritime Reporter Magazine (May 2020)

tive member of the MNTB where I was the Vice Chair for the of Webinars. This is allowing us to deliver classroom teaching

Ratings Trailblazer group where I helped develop several new around the world to seafarers requiring training during this pe- maritime apprenticeships.” riod of restricted travel.

He eventually became the Head of Maritime & Safety Training Following the launch of its Alternative Fuels (LNG) training and managed the development and implementation of the Ma- in 2017, SMT decided to create a Marine Technology division rine LS LMS which enabled easier access to remote learning on to look at new areas of focus in the maritime industry, “and board vessels. He also managed the creation and implementation since then we have developed bespoke courses in Polar Sur- of several e-learning courses which were launched, not only for vival, Maritime Evacuation Systems (MES), Crisis Manage-

Carnival UK vessels, but also to the wider Carnival Corporation. ment, Tanker Operations and Alternative fuels beyond LNG,”

In 2019, he joined the global training company RelyOnNutec said Thomas. “The M&T team are specialists in their felds and to become its Global Head of Maritime Training. After sup- not only develop high level courses, they also teach across the porting a number of its global centers to build its maritime di- course spectrum allowing them to be fexible assets which en- visions, the global business needed to re-focus on its offshore ables them to look into unique training methods and practices portfolio so his role there was cut short. to keep SMT as an innovator in maritime training.” “While at Carnival UK I was introduced to Martin White, the In addition to serving the qualifed offcers of the Merchant owner of a new start-up maritime training business in Glasgow Navy SMT’s Careers department is currently managing the called Stream Marine Training Ltd (started in 2014),” said Thomas. training of more than 40 cadets, “which, as it was only started “This introduction was in 2015 and our aligned passion for 18 months ago, is a fantastic achievement,” said Thomas. “As training beyond compliance was part of the original reason for a forward thinking, innovative business, we are constantly me working with him at a time when Carnival UK were seek- looking at the future and how we can support the training of ing to utilize training providers who saw beyond compliance crew both onshore and whilst at sea. While e-learning is the and helped train towards competence.” frst evolutionary step to this, for SMT this will be a small

While not directly involved in maritime training, Thomas’ stepping-stone to our future goals in our mission to support role is to ensure the staff are focused and suitably trained to the training of seafarers, going beyond compliance and meet- meet the needs of the modern seafarer and support our wide ing the needs of both the seafarer and the shipping companies. customer base in delivering standard and bespoke courses. (In addition) with the development of AR & VR and units be- “I am also responsible for enabling the staff to achieve this coming cheaper and more portable, the use of this equipment through their own professional development,” said Thomas. will support the future training of SMT and by ensuring that “Our clients range from ferry operators, MOD, Offshore, tank- assessment is completed as an integrated piece of the training er and bulk carrier operates and major cruise companies and it means that seafarers can demonstrate competence alongside meeting the ever-changing needs of these industry sectors re- knowledge checks.” quires us to fnd and use the best trainers.”

Meet SMT “We are uniquely placed to offer three areas of expertise: Safety & Survival, Ma- rine Technology and Careers,” said Thom- as. “The business in total has an annual turnover of £2.5M and we issue more than 8000 certifcates annually across our full spectrum of courses.”

Safety & Survival is the backbone of

SMT’s business and delivers every aspect of STCW, MNTB, maritime and shore- based safety and survival training. “Our in- structors have a breadth of industry knowl- edge and help our clients build courses to

SMT also operates a meet their needs where required; this de- fre-fghting training partment operates over our three sites,” facility at Glasgow Air- port where it trains all said Thomas. In recent weeks we have the STCW Fire Fighting been approved by both the Bahamas Mari- courses, time Authority and the MCA to deliver a number of STCW courses through the use

Photo: Stream Marine Training www.marinelink.com 19