National Maritime Polytechnic offers new courses

Nat'l Maritime Polytechnic offers new courses
February 16, 2022 https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/02/16/business/maritime/natl-maritime-p...

TO keep track of its mission to hone competent seafarers abreast with international standards, the National Maritime Polytechnic (NMP) opened the enrollment of the newly developed and approved courses in 2021, namely the Ship Security Officer (SSO) and Technical Writing for Seafarers (TWS) courses.

These were meticulously studied and went through rigid evaluation and review to ensure that quality training is delivered to Filipino seafarers.

The instructional materials and assessment tools for the SSO course were developed following the Maritime Industry Authority (Marina) standard course plan.

As part of the requirements for approval and accreditation, a pilot test was conducted on April 20 to 22, 2021, and the SSO course underwent a thorough inspection and evaluation of the Marina-Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping (STCW) and eventually granted full accreditation last December 2021.

The SSO course is required for seafarers who are duly assigned as SSOs by their shipping companies. Its objective is to provide in-depth knowledge and understanding of the duties and responsibilities of an SSO concerning the security of a ship and in ensuring the implementation of the ship security plan.

Along with the revised STCW requirement on English proficiency skills for seafarers, NMP developed the TWS course. This is designed to support those with limited writing experience and to strengthen the technical report writing skills of seafarers who are involved in preparing maritime reports and various maritime correspondences.

It will primarily cater to seafarers who are at the management level of responsibility. However, anybody who is in the operational and support level and those non-seafarers who are working in the maritime sector may also avail of the course.

Also, before the finalization of the course package for the TWS, pilot testing was conducted on Aug. 16 to 20, 2021. The result and recommendations were presented to the NMP Board of Trustees (BOT) in December 2021 and were subsequently approved.

Significantly, apart from carefully developing and upgrading specialized and professional maritime courses for the Filipino seafarers, NMP also ensures that these training are delivered by competent trainers and instructors with state-of-the-art maritime equipment.