Saturday, 20 September, Room "Gauja"

Chair persons: Dmitrijs Semjonovs and Aleksejs Bogdanecs

13:30 - 14:00   Dmitrijs Semjonovs, Aleksejs Bogdanecs and Manuels Fernandezs, Novikontas Training Centre and Maritime College, Latvia

Educators' attitudes and skills for enhancing quality of seafarers'  in-house training (IHT)

Professional of maritime industry are clear about the necessity of improving In-house training (IHT) quality, but not so clear about what exactly has to be improved and how to do it. A way of understanding better the problematic of IHT is to approach it from the “competent IHT educator” perspective.
In this study we explored the opinions of professional of maritime industry about IHT, with a focus on educators’ competence. For this, we addressed two groups of people: 1) managers and ship owners; and 2) officers and seafarers. We asked them which problems they perceive in IHT, and which solutions they propose. Then, using a questionnaire, we asked them to evaluate the necessary skill and attitudes of competent IHT teacher. Finally, we compared the answers of both groups of respondents and we came back to them with our results, to contrast our conclusions with their practical knowledge of the field.

14:00 - 15:00   Dmitrijs Semjonovs, Aleksejs Bogdanecs, Novikontas Training Centre and Maritime College, Latvia

Rethinking IHT contents and methods in shifting contexts

Contents and methods of IHT should be rethought to respond better to the changing socio-economical context. Current IHT covers a range of topics tied to safety and management. Experienced IHT practitioners esteem that they possess already the necessary knowledge for their work. However, work situations are in continuous evolution and it is necessary to refresh and actualize IHT contents and methods.
During the round table, introduced by a short paper presentation, the following questions will be addressed: Which are the most important current topics for IHT? What are the good novel practices in IHT? Which are the problems linked to a low-quality IHT? The possibilities for implementing in-house training through webinar and other modern pedagogical tools will be also discussed.
As a result of this round table, participants will share innovative solutions in educational management and class room activities arrangement during in-house training will appear.

15:00 - 15:30 COFFEE BREAK

15:30 - 17:00   Dmitrijs Semjonovs, Aleksejs Bogdanecs, Novikontas Training Centre and Maritime College, Latvia

Rebuilding efficient, useful and cost-effective in-house training (IHT) for seafarers

In-house training (IHT) is an increasingly important part of seafarers’ education. In this last session of our section we wish to situate the contents of the two previous sessions (IHT educators’ competence and the changes of IHT methods and contents) in a wider perspective. We will discuss about the sense of IHT and about the problems of IHT organization and cost: seafarers’ lack of time for attending IHT, institutions’ difficulties for organizing IHT, high costs of the IHT formation for both attendees and institutions, pressure of rating companies on ship-owners for obtaining good IHT reports etc.
We will adopt the problem-solving approach based on the analysis of possible contradictions and building solutions: what makes IHT useful? What is the optimal way of organising IHT? How to make it cost effective? The presence of professional auditor, ship owners and other professional will enhance the interest of the discussion.