For those involved in maritime education and training, 2019 will bring challenges and opportunities on several fronts.
First will be the need to respond to the constantly expanding requirements of international maritime conventions and regulatory requirements for the training and certification of merchant mariners. Both the preparation of officers and unlicensed personnel for seagoing service and the maintenance of credentials for those with established careers at sea will take place in a setting in which well-intentioned intergovernmental bodies and national regulatory agencies — charged with preserving and enhancing maritime safety, security, and environmental protection — regularly add to an already long list of mandatory training courses, licenses, and certificates.
Second is the increasingly technical nature of ship operations. Some of these developments offer the promise of reducing tedious monitoring tasks, improving job satisfaction, and decreasing mariner fatigue. The concept of autonomous ships, explored since at least the 1970s, is every year more technically feasible, but underestimates the critically important role of the human element in making judgments essential to safe and efficient ship navigation and operations. Technical evolution, on the other hand, makes it possible for some aspects of maritime training to be delivered to ship crews via distance learning, CD/DVD, etc.
Third, and related to the first two factors, is the importance of developing in mariners the kind of higher order, critical thinking skills that can take them beyond a limited role as functionaries who have only met the minimum requirements of training conventions and regulations. There is both art and science in maintaining a deck or engine watch, handling cargo, managing crewmembers, and in the other diverse activities that comprise vessel operations.
Effective maritime education, which provides mariners with the capability to grow and adapt as the maritime industry and its technologies evolve, offers the means to support this.