Skilled mariners are the backbone of the merchant fleet, and their expertise doesn’t materialise overnight. Years of sea time and rigorous training are essential to building talent. The top-paying jobs in shipping demand intensive study early on and throughout a mariner’s career, making maritime training academies a cornerstone of the industry’s success. With shipping’s vastly improved safety record, it’s clear that rigorous STCW training and simulation are saving lives, cargo, and money.
Technology plays an increasingly vital role in modern maritime education, making it more accessible and realistic. Online learning helps ratings and deck officers improve their skills and complete coursework remotely, even while underway. Digital simulation gives cadets, mariners, and pilots a way to push the limits of their skills under pressure without exposing them to real-world risk.
Solent University’s Warsash Maritime School in Southampton has been at the forefront of high-tech training for years. “We pioneered the use of bridge, engine room, and liquid cargo operations simulators,” says Susie Smith, Warsash’s Marketing Manager. “Our specialist ship-handling training facility is the only one in the U.K. and one of only a few in the world.” In a U.K. first, Warsash is now rolling out a government-approved bridge simulation training program for all its new cadets. The 10-day simulator course will substitute for 30 days of sea time for budding mariners.
In the U.S., the training academy MITAGS (a division of the Masters, Mates & Pilots Union) has been an early adopter of simulation and prides itself on its advanced simulator services for cadets, marine pilots, port authorities, and shipowners. “All our simulators have been significantly upgraded this year with new computers driving them, new software, new projectors,” notes Capt. Jon Kjaelruff, MITAGS’s Director of Business Development. “We invest continuously in not only equipment upgrades – having the best equipment out there – but also the most up-to-date models. We have a full-time staff who can fine-tune the ship models and the simulators as well as the operating areas.”
MITAGS has found ways to bring simulation to new places. Working with its technology providers, it’s developed VR headset systems and cloud-based simulation that can deliver a limited simulation session in any home or office. “A big impediment in training is just the time and the travel cost,” says Kjaelruff. “If the technology can deliver training to where they are, people really like that.”
For many mid-career officers, remote options are a game-changer. The American Maritime Officers’ STAR Center, which provides courses for union members, has taken advantage of online learning to make life easier for AMO mariners. “It’s been very popular with the students,” says Jerry Pannell, Director of Training at STAR Center. “When they have to do required training for their upgrade, they want to do it in the most efficient way possible given that they are taking time off from their ship or using vacation time to do it.”
At the Calhoun MEBA Engineering School (CMES), the training academy for members of the Marine Engineers Beneficial Association, technology is front and center. In addition to two bridge simulators for deck officer training, CMES’ 700-acre campus has hands-on simulation for everything an engineer might encounter on board – from high-voltage electric propulsion to electronic control systems to LNG marine fuel systems. It’s a well-resourced support system for America’s oldest and fastest-growing maritime union.
Technology has also opened up new opportunities for basic safety and familiarization training. Drawing on behavioral research and the design cues of familiar cellphone apps, India’s training tech company MarinePALS creates content that fits the needs of younger seafarers. This approach centers on concise, efficient videos inspired by YouTube and TikTok; interactive, game-like test-and-answer segments, and app engagement prompts that persuade the user to complete more content. All user activity on the app is tracked so that the company and the master can monitor each seafarer’s progress. “The younger generation needs everything to be available on their mobile phones, and the attention span of all people has reduced,” says MarinePALS CEO Capt. Pradeep Chawla. To meet that reality, MarinePALS keeps its video content under seven minutes in length and delivers longer trainings as a “Netflix series” of seven-minute segments. Helpful in-app suggestions put the most relevant content in front of the viewer after each session. “We hope to encourage not complete binge-watching, but at least if you go to one video, then maybe you will see two or three more,” Chawla says. MarinePALS also creates custom gamified learning mini-courses in