By Arun Mehta, MD, Thome India & Head L&D (Seafarers) | March 8, 2023
The business, operational, and resource landscape is in a constant state of evolutionary change, and the Maritime Industry is not immune to this.
Be it Decarbonization, Digitization, ESG, evolving Industry technology, standards, or enhanced risk mitigation measures, there are new drivers.
And while change adaptation is nothing new to the industry, the rapid transition rates with shorter incubation periods require a new response paradigm.
At Thome, we believe that our seafarers and office staff engaged in operational management will be at the heart of assimilating new technologies, systems, and tools for delivering ever more efficient services to our stakeholder’s satisfaction.
This will require up-skilling, re-skilling, and cross-skilling of our human resources.
To promote skillset growth for our sea and shore staff, we have proactively intensified efforts and are leveraging technological advancements to develop new Learning and Development solutions. This, along with an ecosystem of our in-house training facilities, reputed partner institutions, and onboard micro and e-learning platforms, will provide them with a flexible learning continuum.
2022 saw a few firsts – we carried out instructor-facilitated training onboard our vessels; made available micro modules enabling need and demand-based learning by seafarers onboard.
Going forward we will be launching new course modules, intensifying our efforts in facilitating the development of new competencies related to leadership and managerial skills, technical and soft skills.
Compliance with requirements brought about by new industry initiatives such as SIRE 2.0, RightShip RISQ v/02, Dry Bulk Management Standard, and specific commercial and risk mitigation needs of our Principals will remain an important focus area in 2023.
In proactively looking at the future skill sets and competence needs for the decarbonization of shipping, we will introduce a program for training ship and shore staff in operation, maintenance, and troubleshooting of Dual Fuel Engines.
Compliance through Competence Agility and Capacity Building through re-skilling, upskilling, and cross-skilling will be the new key to sustained safe and efficient operations.
