Vocational and academic approaches to maritime education and training (MET): Trends, challenges and opportunities

Abstract

Traditional seafarer training has always focused on the acquisition and use of practical skills. The prevailing view is that, while this approach addresses a degree of cognitive skills, it focuses on and gives much more emphasis to the acquisition of hands-on practical skills for the performance of specific tasks. On the other hand, academic education has been seen to be much more focused on the development of in-depth analytical and critical thinking skills; cognitive skills that are less reliant on hands-on task-oriented training, but stress critical reading and discussion. The global trend in maritime education and training is increasingly to link an essentially vocational education that provides specific and restricted competence outcomes with more general or deeper academic components leading to an academic qualification. This trend has led to some dilemmas for curriculum development, for training legislation in a global industry, and for achieving desired learning outcomes in a professional setting (in the shipping industry). This paper discusses some of the challenges arising from this trend and the opportunities the trend offers. In almost all countries and cultures of the world, operational education and training for transportation on water has origins in an on-the-job training paradigm. The first attempts at codifying international training of seafarers were undertaken under the auspices of the WMU J Marit Affairs (2017) Despite being such a seminal convention, its limitations were many, not least the bias towards a cognitive education paradigm whose outcomes were vague and not optimally addressing the on-the-job competence requirements of industry. This, together with other factors, led to calls for a revision, which resulted in substantial amendments to the regulatory annex to the convention in 1995. Among other things, the perceived deficiency of skill-based competence requirements was rectified. With the addition of many specific competence standards in a new Seafarers Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) Code-standards which were to be evaluated by observable competence criteria-the focus on task-based competence was brought back. This was an important development and created a framework for increased focus on competence as the bedrock of work at sea. The 2010 Manila Amendments to the Code in the main retains this paradigm, a vocational educational approach whose task-structured nature relies very much on criterion-referenced and outcomes-based assessments that are mainly in the skills domain. The Convention (in its accompanying Code) explicitly indicates expected standards of competence, the associated knowledge, understanding, and proficiency required, and importantly the methods for demonstrating competence and criteria for evaluating such demonstration of competence. This is definitive of the STCW Convention-a paradigm heavily influenced by competence-based training and requiring specific practical and performance-based outcomes. However, the STCW Convention has been devel...

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“…The global trend in maritime education and training is increasingly to link an essentially vocational education that provides specific and restricted competence outcomes. This trend has led to some dilemmas for curriculum development, for training legislation in a global industry, and for achieving desired learning outcomes in a professional setting [10].…”

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“…Kolb's experiential learning theory is well suited for this research project, which centers around a competency-based maritime education with a strong experiential-learning focus and implementation. Historically, traditional seafarer training has been centered around the acquisition and use of practical skills with a strong history of on-the-job training and onboard apprenticeship experiences, which has transitioned with technology to the use of full-bridge, high-fidelity simulators as they provide a more consistent learning environment, lower operational costs and reduced liability (Manuel, 2017). Simulators provide experiential learning opportunities within maritime programs for the development of competency-based skills and higher order thinking required of shipboard officers, where the ability to present specifically designed, multiple training scenarios and practical experiences under supervision, guidance and feedback is a true benefit to student learning and knowledge acquisition.…”

“…Traditional seafarer training has focused on the acquisition and use of practical skills in addition to maintaining a strong history of on-the-job training (OJT). Historically, beginning with the whaling industry, men would sign on to a ship without any previous experience, learning the duties of a deckhand under the tutelage from the more experienced crew while underway (Manuel, 2017). If an individual aspired to become an officer or captain, he/she would be required to undergo years of practical experience and apprenticeship under the vessel's captain in order to develop leadership, navigation and seafaring skills.…”

“…Part A of the STCW's Code includes required competencies with their associated knowledge, understanding, and proficiency, as well as the methods for demonstration and assessment of competencies for all shipboard personnel and positions. The STCW code's task-structured nature relies heavily upon criterion-referenced and outcomes-based assessments in the skills domain in addition to demonstration of knowledge and theory through written examination (Manuel, 2017). Part A of the STCW Code is organized by license level and is further broken down into individual tables for each required function (i.e., masters are included within the management function; navigational officers are categorized under the operational function level and deckhands and ratings fall under the support level).…”