Tag: ECDIS training

From ECDIS training to boosting women’s involvement in the shipping industry, we’ve been keeping an eye on the week’s most interesting stories:

Mentors and role models could boost female maritime participation – According to the IMO, female seafarers are an underdeveloped resource. Figures from 2009 showing that only around two per cent of the total seafarer workforce were female. However, according to Maritime Professional’s blog, female mentors and role models could provide the answer. Capt. Lou Mitchell, a lecturer at a UK Marine College and a mentor of the International Maritime Mentoring Community, comments that her own career path would have been different had she been able to turn to a mentor for career advice – admitting she would have become a Chief Mate instead of a Marine Superintendent in the towage industry, if she had known the option was available.

The Admiralty team has recently returned from Asia where our ECDIS experts presented the ‘Are you ready for the new ECDIS regulations?’ workshops.

Captain Paul Hailwood spoke to 85 delegates in Taipei who seemed well informed of the mandatory carriage of ECDIS and its requirements. However, feedback from the workshops suggested that Taiwanese shipping companies are still in the early stages of their transition to digital navigation, in comparison to their European counterparts. Many attendees were particularly interested in hearing about the cost effectiveness of implementing ECDIS on board; a key concern for the region’s maritime industry.

The first prize draw has just taken place, for our global training initiative. Qualified bridge officers from around the world entered to win a free place on a generic ECDIS training course, based on IMO Model Course 1.27 (Operational use of ECDIS), and 50 professional mariners will now be able to undertake comprehensive training at global maritime colleges.

In a poll of entrants, it emerged that bridge officers believe the most important benefit of digital navigation will be “improved maritime safety”. How can we not agree with this; comprehensive and early mariner training is vital if the industry is to achieve the full safety and efficiency benefits of digital navigation.

Mariners who answered our questions also recognise the need to complete ECDIS training to secure a job at sea with 86 per cent of respondents saying it’s vital or quite important. Training is a priority for mariners due to the mandatory carriage of ECDIS, which came into force 1st July 2012.

Ian Moncrieff CBE, Chief Executive, UKHO, explains why Admiralty has developed a series of training tools to help seagoers operate safely with ECDIS

If the maritime industry is to realise the full benefits of ECDIS, it is essential that bridge watchkeepers are properly trained to be confident and proficient in planning and conducting navigation with ENCs on ECDIS and back of bridge systems.

During the recent Sea-Japan exhibition, we were fortunate to be able to interview leading Japanese shipowners to discuss their progress in the digital navigation transition. In our series of features on Japan’s ‘big three,’ Takaai Inoue, chief engineer and general manager of safety operations for Mitsui OSK Lines (MOL) talks about the challenges of adoption, training and flag state implementation.

ECDIS is not new to MOL; the company has used a combination of Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) and Electronic Chart System (ECS) on its owned fleet since 2006. The process which it will adopt going forward will be a complete move from unofficial ECS to the approved and SOLAS-compliant ECDIS.

Admiralty has been travelling the world with its ‘Are you ready for the ECDIS regulations?’ workshops and feedback from attendees has been clear: crew training is one of the industry’s top priorities. This has been the feedback from every workshop that we have held so far; in Hamburg, Mumbai, Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore and Connecticut.

It’s not surprising, as the mandatory carriage of ECDIS will fundamentally change the way that we navigate. Comprehensive and early mariner training is vital if the industry is to achieve the full safety and efficiency benefits of digital navigation.

Admiralty recently held ‘Are you ready for the ECDIS regulations?’ workshops at two private events in India (in partnership with C&C Marine Combine) and at the Sea Japan exhibition in Tokyo. Around 150 people attended the workshops to hear Captain Paul Hailwood and experienced mariner Joe Collins present Admiralty’s 9 stage guide to digital navigation.

Feedback from the sessions was that the guide helped attendees feel more confident about the challenges of installing and operating ECDIS. Some audience members were well advanced in the process, but many were still at planning stage.