Integrated Working Group "On-board Training"

25 October 2006 - Captain Larry Wade, USMS

The International Executive Board of the IAMU at their meeting in March of 2006 recognized the need to form a second Integrated Working Group in addition to the IWG on LNG. Their decision was based on the mandates of STCW with respect to minimum standards of training and the extreme cost of "on-board training" to the IAMU member institutions. Accordingly the Chair in conjunction with the Secretary's office solicited member appointments from a diverse regional mix of IAMU members.

I am happy to report that, I was chosen to chair this auspicious group of extremely qualified members and that we held our first planning and goal setting meeting coincidental to AGA 7 at Dalian Maritime University on the 17th of October. This afforded those members of the group who were in attendance the opportunity to interact with and to attend technical presentations concurrent with AGA 7. I might add that meetings and discussions with Maritime Education Professionals is truly an eye opening experience. "Sea stories" spun from the mouths of educators are truly the best, and most generally elicit hearty laughter, but always tend to expand one's knowledge of a situation and or educational opportunity.

The Integrated Working Group "On-board Training" (IWG-OBT) has developed questions to pose to member institutions, with the responses disseminated to members for study and to be discussed at the next gathering. This is scheduled to happen in late February or early March 2007 and will be graciously hosted by State University of New York, Maritime.

Long term the group expects to have an interim report to the IAMU members at AGA 8 with a final report presented, printed and distributed at AGA 9. We are formulating a plan to possibly involve students from IAMU member institutions jointly participating in an event during the summer of 2008. This could be very exciting World Maritime event. Stay tuned for the next IWG-OBT report.