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1 INTRODUCTION
Seafarer’seducationandtrainingisbasedonSTCW‐
78 requirements. The convention is constantly and
quickly developing in order to meet the permanent
challenges of the shipping industry. The effective
shippingcompanies tryto getmaximum knowledge
and experience from their officers and engineers
applying a lifelong learning system. One of the
profit
able ways is the performance of Fleet Officers’
MeetingssometimesnamedFleetOfficers’Seminars.
TheInternationalSafetyManagementCodeandits
implementation in the shipping industry challenge
Fleet Officer’s Seminars as a Part of Lifelong Learning
Process
B.Belev
NikolaVaptsarovNavalAcademy,Varna,Bulgaria
ABSTRACT:Goingbacktothebeginningof90‐iesoflastcentury beforethepresentSTCW‐78/95Convention
was established the shipping industry relied on Maritime Education and Training Institutions for well‐
educated and trained seafarers. Every shipowner simply employed seafarers that his ships needed and the
relevant Minimum Safe Manning Cert
ificate required. Generally speaking MET Institutions were the only
Institutionsresponsibleforinitialandfollowingeducationandtrainingofseafarers.
The last decade in the shipping industry has been marked by plenty changes and quick development in
different directions. One of the directions is improving the qualit
y of seafarer’s education and training,
knowledge and skills as well. The obligatory competences in STCW‐78/95 Convention are not enough for
shipowners and they try to extend the education process outside the Convention’s requirements and
recommendations. It is a well known and more and more spread practice for Shipowners to organize and
performmeetingswithofficers andengineersworkingonboa
rdtheirvessels.Suchmeetingsgetpublicityas
FleetOfficer’sMeetings(FOM) orFleetOfficer’sSeminars(FOS).Themeetingsorseminarsareperformedat
leastonayearlybasisbutitistheOwner’sdecisiontoestablishtheagendaandthescopeofthetopi
cs.
Theusefulnessoftheabovementionedeventsisvisibleenoughanditiseasytounderstandthattheapplied
efforts are not time wasted. The question is whether the companies can perform such kind of training and
whether their lecturers and instructors, who are usually pa
rt of the office staff, are ready to deliver their
experienceatanacceptablelevel.IthastobehighlightedthatitisnotarulethatgoodprofessionalsasMasters
andEngineersarealwaysgoodlecturersandtrainers.
Thisarticledescribesthesummaryresultsoftheauthors’experienceinpart
icipatingasafleetofficerandasan
assessorinfleetofficers’seminars.ThearticlemakesaSWATanalysisofsucheventsandsharesexperienceasa
conclusion.Theauthorgiveshispersonalcollaborationtothelifelonglearningprocessintheshippingindustry.
Thearticlemakes anattemptto open thedoor tothe co‐operationbetween theshipping indust
ryand MET
Institutionsatahigherlevelaftertheseafarers’graduationintheirMETInstitutions.
http://www.transnav.eu
the International Journal
on Marine Navigation
and Safety of Sea Transportation
Volume 10
Number 4
December 2016
DOI:10.12716/1001.10.04.03
562
ship owners all around the World to improve the
training and the skills of their seafarers. Paragraphs
6.4 and 6.5 require “the company to ensure all
personnel involved in the company’s safety
managementsystemhaveanadequateunderstanding
of relevant rules, regulations, codes and guidelines”
and “the company should establish
and maintain
proceduresforidentifyinganytrainingwhichmaybe
requiredinsupportoftheSafetyManagementSystem
and ensure that such training is provided for all
personnelconcerned[2].
The realization of the abovementioned
requirements is in the form of annual seminars,
dependingon theCompany SMS, withall
seafarers’
participations.Ofcourse,theseminarsareorganized
inadifferentmannerforseamenandofficersbecause
of the different topics, problems and responsibilities
concerned.
Today, more of the companies employ
multinational crews on board their vessels. The
managementstriveforamultipleeffect–ononehand
touse the
seminar foreducation andtraining of the
officers and engineers in the spirit of IMO
requirements and on the other hand to apply the
companypolicyin order toimplementthe company
common spirit and standards. Although Fleet
Officer’sseminarsarenotcompulsoryasperSTCW,
shipping companies spend money
and time to
organize such events. In this way the management
introduces itself to seafarers, keeps a close quarter
cooperationbetweenofficersinthecompanynetwork
and it is a good opportunity for exchanging
experiencebetweenthemanagementandseafarers.A
furtherlong‐termbenefitforallpartiesistolive
and
work in a common environment with specific
companyspirit.
This paper is focused on the way of organizing
and performing Fleet Officers’ Seminars and
summarizestheadvantagesandweakpointsofsuch
events.
2 TOPICSANDLECTURERS
When browsing the Internet everyone can find
information regarding Fleet Officers’ Seminars,
carried out by many shipping companies. A brief
description of the organization, topics, lecturers and
venue is also posted, usually in the websites of
companies. Plenty of pictures are shown, many of
them in the form of slideshows and in this way the
webpageseemstobecompleted.Everyvisitorof
the
website of some shipping company, searching for
information in this respect, can conclude that the
informationisconfidential.Butthisisnotcompletely
correct.
Formanyyearstheseminarshavebeenorganized
and carried our following the same pattern. The
company advertises the time for the performance,
consideringthe
scheduleandthecapacityofacertain
localrecruitmentoffice.All seafarers,whoaresigned‐
offonshore are notifiedby phone and e‐mail about
allthedetailsconcerningtheevent.
UsuallytheSeminarstaketwoorthreedays.The
topicsintheagendaareasummary ofthe company
seapractice.Theroundtabledealswith:
Quality, safety, security and environmental
matters;
Recent changes to International Maritime
ConventionsandCodes;
Technical Management with special focus on the
technical implementation of International
conventions[1]
Leadership’s problems; Mentoring and many
others.
Usuallythetopicsarechosenat
thelastmoment,
just before the seminars. One of the shipping
companies was honest to confess that the Branch
Committee had met during the year to discuss the
topic at a half‐day seminar, wanting to find
somethingnewtotalkabout,somethingthathadnot
beendiscussedbefore[3].The
followingconclusions
canbedrawnfromreadingit:
1 TheFOSisnotpreliminaryplannedandtopicsare
notintheCompanyschedule.
2 The Company will improvise with invited
speakers.
3 A risk exists for the prepared materials and
presentations to be not fully understandable and
interestingforparticipants.
The most spread practice for determining FOS
involves the Company Safety Department. Topics
originatefromcompanybusiness.Itisawell‐known
factthat inevery shippingcompany there are many
cases of safety violations leading to incidents or
accidents.Thosecompany’smanagementhasalways
somethingfilluptheschedule.
The
nextstepistoengageaspeaker,usuallyfrom
other offices belonging to the Company. They get a
tasktoprepareasuitabletopicandapresentation.It
isnotagoodpracticeforpresentationstobeprepared
bysomebodywhohasdifferentexperienceoutofthe
Safety Department and
especially if he is not a
seafarer.Furthermore,presentationsareusedseveral
consecutiveyears.Suchweakpointsarealwaysinthe
focusoftheparticipantsandcausediscouragement.
Some speakers are boring and speak with
inappropriate voice. Thus it is very difficult for the
participants to focus their attention and to
keep
listeningtothespeaker.Obviouslythespeakerlacks
experience as an instructor or lecturer and does not
possess specific techniques for attracting the
participants’attention.Insuchcasesthecommonrule
that a good Master or a good Engineer is not
necessarilyagoodLectureriscorroborated.Insuch
a
gapbetweenhighprofessionalismandteacher’sskills
for sharing the experience is the place of Maritime
Educational and Training Institutions (MET) which
can provide their help and assistance for Global
Shipping.
The modern MET Institutions try to attract
professionalMastersandEngineers,whoarereadyto
change their scene of
contribution. Such Lecturers
have professional and scientific experience,
accumulatedduringtheirprofessionalcareerandare
the best choice for solving the abovementioned
problems. The close quarter cooperation between
ShippingandEducationisastepintherightdirection
563
fortherecognitionofLifelongLearningasanecessary
practiceinshippingcompanies.
3 POSITIVEPRACTICESANDMOSTCOMMON
ERRORSANDWEAKNESSES.
Theauthorsofthepresentarticlehaveexperience
inparticipatinginFOS,carriedoutinthecompanies
of their service as Officer of the Watch and Chief
Mate.
They have shared their experience as FOS
assessorsatthetimeoftheirProfessor’scareerinMET
institutionsinBulgariaandRomania.
Thefollowingpositivepracticescanbesharedand
confirm the necessity of LLL during seafarer’s sea
service.
The hall used for the event has to be in every
respect enough for all participants despite their
number.Additionalequipmenthastobeusedtogive
achance tothe participants toread theslidesof the
presentations and to hear the explanations of the
lecturers.
It is very important for the time schedule to be
followedstrictly. Thusthe discipline
of the auditory
remainsatahighlevel,closetothevessel’sspiritand
the seafarers do not have a feeling of wasting their
vacationtime.
Inordertoimposecompanyspiritthetutorshave
to use a common language of communication with
the participants in the seminar based on
the
regulations and requirements of the company as a
whole and to use common criteria for evaluation as
well.OneofthemaingoalsofFOSistobringupthe
seafarersincompanysafety culture,companyvalues
andcompanybelonging.
It is recommended that Deck Officers and
Engineers participate in
the seminar together.
Everybody has to be in charge of and familiar with
the company goals. Such a practice also establishes
preconditions for team work in the spirit of IMO
ManilaAssembly2010.
It is very important for lecturers to present their
materialsataveryhighlevel.Advancepreparation
is
important and a must for both sides – tutors and
participants.Anycompromisewillbringtheseminar
to another, lower level as professional event. It is
recommendedthattutors donotconfineto thelimit
of the presentation but extend the topics with
examples from their practice increasing their
authority
amongtheparticipants.Establishingagood
communicationbetween tutors and seafarers is very
fruitful inorder to predispose the participants to be
open minded and active during discussions. The
tutorsshallfollowstrictlythescheduleandshalltry
tousethetimerationally.
During presentations give the participants a
chance
to share their experience by answering
questions.Allparticipantsmustbeprovidedwiththe
necessarymaterials asscripts andquestionnaires for
theworkshop.
Wehavetoconfessthatdespitetheexperienceof
the Companies’ Management some discrepancies
wereobserved.
Presentations were not prepared by the tutors.
Becauseofthisthey
improvisedandreadfromthe
slides during the presentation, which left the
impresionintheparticipantsthattutorswerenot
fullyinvolvedintheFOS.
The instructors did not point at a particular
participant for answering the questions asked by
themduringworkshops.
Some presentations contained information which
was not part of thetutors’ professional topics. In
suchcasesthetutorwas not readytodiscuss the
informationanditwasnoticedbytheparticipants.
Sometimes tutors spoke very silently and with
unclear pronunciation. It is difficult for the
participants at the back to understand what the
tutor
wastalkingabout.
Thetutorsdeliveredpartofthepresentationsatan
academic level which issuitable for students but
notforprofessionals.
Thehallwasnotsuitablefortheeventandwasnot
suitable for interactive communication. If part of
participants are sitting with their backs to
the
tutorstheeffectofthediscussiondecreases.
Interactiveeducationandcommunicationwasnot
usedenough.
Some presentations contained small print which
was not suitable for reading, especially from the
participantsattheback.
The tutors work with a small part of the
participantsduringexerciseswhichmaks
theother
participantsfeelisolated.
Whentutorsexplainaparticularcase,noexamples
from international documents, IMO resolutions
and requirements, supporting the theory were
used.
The instructors did not explain clearly to the
participantstheirdutiesduringthediscussionofa
caseandwhatwasexpectedfromthem.
Theinstructorsdidnotexplainclearlythegoalsin
every case and what the expectations from the
participantswereattherespectiveworkshops.
The prepared exercises were too long. The
instructorsdidnotanalyzetheresultsofexercises
afterthem.
No cases from the Company practice were
included
in the syllabus of the meeting for
analyzingandstudying.
Theabovementionedandotherdiscrepanciesare
common problems for many events such as Fleet
Officers’Seminars.Insuchinitiativestheclosequarter
cooperation between education and practice can
improvetheprocessofLLLonmutualbasis.Suchco‐
operation
is very easy to be achieved when a
Shipping company asks a MET institution for
participation in an event at the same level as FOM
and FOS. The teaching staff is well prepared for
deliveringtopics
for beginners, for the intermediate level and for
Masters, as well. Some speakers from the
maritime
business,despitetheirpracticalskillsandexperience,
lackteachingskills.Actuallythisgapcanbefilledby
lecturersfromMETinstitutions.
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4 CONCLUSION
ThemaingoalofLLListokeeptraineesuptodateby
means of continuous studying and participating in
events organized by the shipowner. FOS can be
studiedfromatleastthreeperspectives:pedagogical,
organizational, and technical. Bearing in mind that
organizational and technical aspects are directly
dedicatedtothepersoninchargeintheCompany,we
candiscussthepedagogicalaspectasawideareaof
co‐operationbetweentheshippingbusinessandMET
institutionswithmutualbenefit.
Within the context of lifelong learning it is
necessary to maintain continuous co‐operation at
personal level between
the Company management
and the teaching staff from MET institutions. An
importantrequirementforlifelonglearningisthatthe
resultsofthecommonactivitiesanddevelopmentof
bothsideshavetobefiledforlateruseintheformof
a Company‐MET institution network. The
stakeholdersinthisendeavorare
manyanddiverse:
cadets –new officers, teachers and staff at maritime
academiesandshippingcompanies’personnel.
REFERENCES:
A.Schulte, First SeniorFleetOfficer Meeting inHamburg,
TheCrow’sNest,July2007IMO,ISMCode,2014
Mentoring and Leadership onboard and ashore,
www.nautinst.org/download.cfm?docid...9F95...(2015)
