a new maritime education model
DESCRIPTION
The presentation shares the work undertaken at the Singapore Maritime Academy to run an IT-infused Certificate of Competency course for Steam Propulsion. Instead of traditional lectures, the learners were encouraged to move towards self-directed learning, knowledge creation, self-evaluation of competence and contribute to the growth of a core knowledgebase in steam engineering through collaboration and sharing among the participants. The experiments conducted with CmapTools software suite provided knowledge visualization and access points to the core KBS. According to Novak and Cañas (2008), knowledge creation by individuals facilitates the process of learning for the learners. A system of shipboard procedural knowledge capture was introduced, which is expected to have a significant impact on keeping the content knowledge updated and incrementally enhance the core KBS at SMA. It is claimed that such course structures might provide some answers to the gap in competency between knowledge and proficiency acquired at MET institutions and the real requirement at sea.TRANSCRIPT
Kalyan Chatterjea, Singapore Maritime Academy
Narrowing the Gap between the Shipowners’ Requirements &
Maritime Administrations’ Certificate of Competency
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo
Training of Shipboard Manpower I am truly honoured to be
given a chance to address this significant gathering of international maritime professionals!
I shall raise some of the key issues in manpower training brought up by many in this industry.
Then present a case study at SMA, which is trying to address some of these issues.
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Training of Shipboard ManpowerStructure of preparatory courses for the Certificate
of Competency (COC) went through many changes over the years.
Emphasis of knowledge competency-based structures after implementation of STCW 95 is making these courses focused towards the competency requirements at sea.
Yet in many maritime forums and literature we encounter numerous instances when shipowners and ship mangers complain about the inadequate competencies of seafarers.
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Training of Shipboard ManpowerIt becomes clear that the maritime education
and training (MET) institutions are not doing enough to keep pace with the rapid changes in the industry.
Shipping companies are allocating large budgets in developing their own training centres & courses.
However, with the present high turn over of manpower in the maritime sector, this strategy is sometimes questioned.
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Training of Shipboard ManpowerPerhaps, if a system is put in place whereby
the knowledge and proficiencies taught at the MET institutions are dynamically updated
to be in-phase with shipboard changes, the value of COC could be enhanced
And the gap between the shipowners’/ ship managers’ requirements and the knowledge and proficiency imparted at the MET institutions could be narrowed.
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Shipowners’ & Ship Managers’ ViewsAt ESCAP in Bangkok Captain Masako Nakaya, Senior Manager of
Crewing, NYK Shipmanagement PTE Ltd., Japan provided the Forum with insights on the perspectives of the shipowners.
He said “…Certificates are not sufficient to prepare the seafarer for the conditions directly linked to the specific needs of different shipowners”.
NYK is therefore developing their own training centres.
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Shipowners’ & Ship Managers’ ViewsMr. Rajaish Bajpaee, President and Group
Managing Director, Eurasia Group of Companies raised the dilemma of investing in training at the 16th LSM Ship Management Conference 2006.
He further claimed in his speech that a certificate of competency or qualification is not always a proof of true competency.
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Shipowners’ & Ship Managers’ ViewsMr. Bajpaee further stated ‘Despite the efforts of some ship managers
and owners in investing millions of dollars on the latest technology and the best training centres to attract and train the young professionals, some players continue to wonder about the wisdom of ploughing time and money into training when in the blink of an eye they see some of their more promising prospects are “poached” by an industry rival who does not bother to invest in training.’
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Extract of a Slide from Capt. Jan Horck’s (WMU) Presentation at NTU
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Maritime Education beyond STCW 95
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Dr. Neil Otway, CEO/Principal, Australian Maritime College, addressing this issue, said that most maritime education institutions now recognise
that STCW95 should only be seen as a minimum requirement for seafarers’.
Higher level skills and qualifications are needed by seafarers, worldwide, if the International Maritime Organisation’s desire for ‘safer shipping and cleaner seas’ is to be achieved (Otway, 2004).
Maritime Education beyond STCW 95
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Prof. Captain Ralph Becker-Heins of Bremen University of Applied Sciences reported (Becker-Heins, 2006) a novel approach to maritime education, entitled Collaborative Maritime Knowledge And Training Systems, This is funded as a EU Pilot Project and called Honeycomb Database
under Leonardo da Vinci Programme. They are trying to implement a system for seafarers to capture, store
and disseminate information. Useful information is retrieved from documents, processes and some
crucial knowledge, which may actually remain in peoples’ heads.
Maritime Education beyond STCW 95
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Present practices of competency-based training for COC Courses in MET institutions, do not normally allow for knowledge sharing, knowledge renewal or dynamic creation of knowledge, which could keep pace with the changes in engineering
practices on board. could lead to a maritime model of education, where
learners would be active partners in developing a dynamic knowledge-creation system capturing shipboard practices and
the resulting system can adequately serve the maritime industry in producing truly competent seafarers, equipped with updated shipboard practices.
Maritime Education beyond STCW 95
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Classroom structure and environment, maintained in most MET institutions, promotes mainly transmission mode of learning.
Trainees coming out of such environment are likely to lack analytical skills.
Knowledge Lab at Singapore Maritime Academy for Steam COC Course
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Knowledge creation, knowledge sharing, cooperative learning& online assessmentat the Steam COC course at SMA.
Knowledge Lab at Singapore Maritime Academy for Steam COC Course
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
In SMA’s Knowledge Lab, learning is by doing. Given a chance learners prefer active learning rather than passive listening.
This is found to be more applicable to our senior students attending the Certificate of Competency (COC) courses as compared to the new entrants, who have no sea-going experience.
Knowledge lab is used in a conversion course for engineers Motorship COC to Steamship COC for LNG carriers.
Knowledge Lab at Singapore Maritime Academy for Steam COC Course
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Social validation of knowledge at the Steam COC course at SMA.
Knowledge Lab at Singapore Maritime Academy for Steam COC Course
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Formative, on-demand, online, networked assessments, which are interspaced between learning sessions.
Knowledge Lab at Singapore Maritime Academy for Steam COC Course
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Knowledge Lab at Singapore Maritime Academy for Steam COC Course
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Knowledge Lab at Singapore Maritime Academy for Steam COC Course
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Steam COC Course Assessment Strategy
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Shipboard Knowledge Capture
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
A crucial part of the course is the shipboard componentwhere the learners append their individual portfolios
while capturing the procedural knowledge. The assignments are given on the course Blog: http://lngsteam.blogspot.com
Shipboard Knowledge Capture
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
ExtractFromBlog
Shipboard Knowledge Capture
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
While shipboard technologies and procedures evolve rapidly with changing times,
Changes in content at the MET institutions lag behind due to the content being generated, mainly from books and published literature
Consequently the value of the Certificate of Competency acquires a negative gradient in the minds of the shipowners and ship managers.
Shipboard Knowledge Capture
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
Yet the easiest channels of capturing knowledge from the practitioners are rarely tapped.
Management-level students, with recently acquired rich shipboard exposures, join MET institutions in each Semester to receive procedural knowledge, which, in most instances, is dated.
The age-old institutional practices of catering unidirectional knowledge-transmission towards the learners are difficult to moderate.
We remain satisfied living in our comfort zone.
Shipboard Knowledge Capture
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
In this Steam COC course at SMA an avenue is created (see Table 1, last row) to tap this rich experiential knowledge,
readily available from the seafarers at management level, through shipboard assignments.
The process ploughs back the latest procedural knowledge into the MET institute, thereby keeping the content dynamically updated.
The core knowledgebase grows incrementally and over time has the potential to become a large source of knowledge with logical concept-map-based access points, which could be tapped by both learners and practitioners.
Knowledge-based Certificate of Competency
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea
I would like to claim that such course structures might provide some answers to the gap in competency between knowledge and proficiency acquired at MET institutions and the real requirement at sea.
This experiment is being done in a small scale at SMA.
With the support from the industry similar courses could be started for our Motorship COC as well!
Thank you!
Asia Pacific Maritime 2008 Conference 27-28 March at Singapore Expo, Kalyan Chatterjea