Fleet Officer’s Seminars as a part of lifelong learning process

Going back to the beginning of 90-ies of last century before the present STCW-78/95 Convention 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 Certificate required. Generally speaking MET Institutions were the only Institutions responsible for initial and following education and training of seafarers. 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 quality 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 perform meetings with officers and engineers working on board their vessels. Such meetings get publicity as Fleet Officer’s Meetings (FOM) or Fleet Officer’s Seminars (FOS). The meetings or seminars are performed at least on a yearly basis but it is the Owner’s decision to establish the agenda and the scope of the topics. The usefulness of the above mentioned events is visible enough and it is easy to understand that the applied 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 part of the office staff, are ready to deliver their experience at an acceptable level. It has to be highlighted that it is not a rule that good professionals as Masters and Engineers are always good lecturers and trainers. This article describes the summary results of the authors’ experience in participating as a fleet officer and as an assessor in fleet officers’ seminars. The article makes a SWAT analysis of such events and shares experience as a conclusion. The author gives his personal collaboration to the lifelong learning process in the shipping industry. The article makes an attempt to open the door to the co-operation between the shipping industry and MET Institutions at a higher level after the seafarers’ graduation in their MET Institutions.