The new technologies are going to affect seafarers’ training standards and methodologies, as they are going to be the backbone for any initiative, said Capt. Pravesh Diwan, Director of KARCO-Karishma Marine Solutions, in an exclusive interview with SAFETY4SEA at Europort Conference, in early November.
According to Capt. Diwan, seafarers today are coping with an overwhelming situation of new rules and regulations, whether it is on environment, safety or labour issues, therefore, they need to be continuously trained, in order to achieve compliance.
“If we do not deal with this situation, we will face big troubles of non-compliance,” he stressed.
In the meantime, the new generation of seafarers comes with totally different skillsets than the previous one, with laptops, smartphones, etc. being part of everyday life, making them capable of adopting to even faster evolving technologies.
In view of this, “we cannot be nostalgic of the old times”, Capt. Diwan noted, and there is the need to evolve with new techniques that will affect training. Companies must be ready for this change.
The recent worldwide phenomenon of Blue Whale challenge, which convinces youngsters to commit suicides, means that technology can have a major impact in new generations and the way people think, he explained. The days of individual mentoring are over.
“If people can be influenced to commit suicide by an online gaming, then we can use these techniques and technologies for effective training of seafarers.”
So, the changing landscape of technology, including virtual reality and automation, is going to change the way things are being done and this rate of changing will be much faster.
On this context, Capt. Diwan informed that KARCO, a provider of 3D animated marine safety videos for training of seafarers, is developing a new learning management system which allows operators to host their own content, so that they can make better analytical decisions based on software.
Further, when he was asked of shipping’s position in digital transformation, Capt. Diwan pointed out that shipping is always lagging behind in smart technologies, because it is the only truly international industry.
Shipping will always be ‘two steps behind’, as changes are driven by flag states, PSC regimes etc., which makes it much more a ‘responsive’ industry and less ‘proactive’, he concluded.
I agree. the syllabus competency examination must be overhauled to meet modern day challenges. it is no point making it mandatory to learn traditional navigation when the only time you use it is to pass a competency examination. more importance to quick decisions making and situational awareness , human interface with technological advances.
Safety is a mind issue and hence, the safety systems must be designed, considering Brain response. So should be the safety training. Current systems and training is faulted. No amount of training is of value if the part of the Brain that handles the response were to shut down in a contingency.