Crew training provider Maritime Skills Academy has received Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) approval to run four of its STCW courses by webinar in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

The four courses available via webinar are:

• Updating Advanced Fire Fighting (UAFF)
• Designated Security Duties (DSD)
• Security Awareness (SA)
• Personal Safety & Social Responsibilities (PSSR)

The courses are theory based and with a robust assessment process and great student interaction they can be taught virtually as if they were in an actual classroom. The lessons are broken down into bitesize sessions to accommodate breaks for the delegates and to guarantee optimum learning capacity for everyone.

The MSA is also currently running courses in its Dover centre but with limited numbers of delegates due to social distancing measures. A good alternative to help seafarers requiring their statutory training is to teach by webinar. Being one of the pioneers to teach in this way, the MSA has found that this will ease the pressure for companies to have their seafarers training competence still met.

Reduced travel times for crew and no hotel expenses for companies is a big plus with online training.

Mark Jaenicke, training and performance director, said, “We are very proud to be one of the innovators in delivering MCA-approved STCW webinar and eLearning courses to the maritime world. We are always looking for new and diverse ways to assist the seafaring community. This method will not only help seafarers in the current situation, but we see it as the future of STCW training.

“More courses taught in this style will follow in the next few months at the Maritime Skills Academy as we see a new direction in how seafarers can learn remotely.”

For more information, visit Maritime Skills Academy. Sign up to our newsletter to get the best of Yachting Pages delivered direct to your inbox every month.