International Maritime Organisation (IMO) promotes English as “the language of the sea” under Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW). The Project’s expectation is to reduce accidents occurring due to communication failures where 80 percent of world crews do not speak English as a first language. Seafarers as per their competency requirements are expected to have a good command Maritime English to carry out their daily jobs at sea.
Researches show that a contributory factor to the increasing number of accidents is lack of communication skills of seafarers serving at sea and ashore (40 percent) (Nautical Institute, 2015). Marine accidents and incidents are reoccurring due to a lack of English language skills of the maritime personnel.
The world. as it was repeatedly reported, needs competent seafarers having good communication skills therefore there is a real need for seafarers to be trained as such that they acquire the skills and competence that instruction in colleges cannot deliver.
The project will therefore develop a learning program considering different ranks of seafarers, taking into account the experience they attained in each vessel to teach Maritime English based on the real activities specific to each type of vessel.
PraC-MARENG project aims to:
- Identify the activities and tasks specific to each type of vessels that seafarers undertake on a daily basis
- Develop an online Training programme for each rank therefore they can real activities and tasks on board various types of vessels
- Design and develop a learning and assessment tool that provides the user with a genuine certificate for the newly acquired skills based on experiential knowledge.
In doing this, the platform will have the following features:
- incorporating real communication at sea using SMCP,
- activities which are meaningful to students and which will motivate them to become committed to sustaining communication to accomplish a specific goal.
PraCMarEng Training Platform will provide a programme for different ranks taking into account various types of vessels. The tool will have options to select levels of competence that users would wish to attain on different ranks.
The platform offered by PraC-MARENG will have a direct impact on seafarers by giving them enhanced competence in Maritime English. Seafarers will have better skills and knowledge to understand and interpret tasks and activities on board the vessel hence better communication skills.
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