Seagull & Newslink expand in Greek shipping market with new services presented at their Annual User Forum in Athens
Continuous improvement, customers’ update on new services and receiving effective feedback from users are essential tasks for an efficient training developer. Following this rule, Seagull and NewsLink organised a user forum to exchange experiences, to discuss future training and to gain valuable feedback on current training programs and services. The forum was open to both existing users and potential clients.
An increasing number of shipping companies are using Seagull’s Computer-Based Training programs. Currently more than 7,000 installations worldwide use the Seagull Training System.
NewsLink, a partner with Seagull, provides an electronic daily onboard newspaper accompanied by an Infotainment magazine in DVD format, Computer-Based Tutorials, SMCP summary along with custom made DVDs (related to conferences & in house seminars/training) and lastly websites development.
The NewsLink News and Infotainment magazine is sent to more than 5,000 ships worldwide every day and is enthusiastically welcomed by crew-members.
This Annual User event recently took place at Athenaeum Intercontinental Hotel on 14/10/2009 in Athens with more than 70 shipping companies’ representatives attending.
The opening introduction was presented by Mr. Ioannis Athanasopoulos, Managing Director of the Seagull-NewsLink office in Piraeus, who gave a detailed update of both companies’ status worldwide and also developments in the Greek market as well.
In his presentation of Seagull Norway, Mr. Roger Ringstad, the Managing Director of Seagull AS, said that during the last 12 months Seagull has revised 24 CBT modules. All customers receive CBT modules revisions every 12-15 months. As of October 2009 Seagull had 143 CBT modules available and 116 of these were available from access over the internet. In Nov. 2009 and March 2010, Seagull will release a total of 16 revisions and several new titles, these are to be launched in the beginning of 2010, such as anchorage procedures, hatch cover maintenance, piracy, containers fires, hydrogen sulphide awareness, Maritime Labour Convention, etc.
According to Mr. Ringstad, Seagull’s Training System includes regular updates of the onboard library of CBT modules and the Seagull Training Administrator (STA).
Seagull Administrator is an excellent tool administrating all training records and following up onboard training activities. In addition, the Seagull Administrator contains other useful features, such as company notices, where every company can distribute Safety/ISM notices through the Seagull’s Training System and define which ranks and which vessel types are required to read that specific company’s notice. Companies can also upload their existing appraisal forms into the Seagull’s program, allowing the entire staff appraisal to be recorded electronically.
Mr. Ringstad referred to STA online (Web training) which is a new function for monitoring personnel details, training results, training status and development status and eliminates the need for local computer and installations in the office. This provides an easy and unlimited access for all office personnel and allows for low fixed overhead costs.
STA online also offers easy and predictable pricing for online access to CBT modules either for the existing users of Seagull’s Training System using the same CBT modules, along with new customers who may be interested in training their crew & staff via a web interface.
Additionally, Mr. Ringstad presented a new version of CES (Crew Evaluation System) and APRO (Ability Profiling) which is in line with the requirements of TMSA2, element3, stage 4.1, both of these packages will be available online from next year.
Regarding TOTS (Tanker Officer Training Standards) and the Oil Company Officer Matrix System, Mr. Ringstad told the meeting that INTERTANKO has signed a license agreement with Seagull which provides an electronic version of TOTS which can be sub-licensed to tanker operators. Euronav Shipmanagement is the first shipping company that implemented TOTS in all ships.
Mr. Paal Grytnes (Seagull’s Senior Support Engineer), briefed the meeting on Seagull’s product support saying that the company’s support personnel is in Norway, Poland & Singapore. They deal with installation & setup of systems, give General information and solve software problems. Also, the Support Department is involved with Training Data Collection service, export of records, request for records & IDS and endeavors to respond within the next working day. They also provide support during weekends.
Mr. Erik Frette, Seagull’s Manager Course Dept explained that onboard courses are a unique combination of CBT theory, assessment and additional questions/practical exercises. The standard procedure includes a workbook with questions & practical exercises. Updates of all procedures and work tools are on CD#C1 cases version 1-19, released Q3 2009.
This CD will be sent to all new customers together with the general shipment or preinstalled on the desktop. Existing customers will get the CD when updates of library are sent out.
Some of the available onboard courses are AT (Assessor Training), ARPA, ECDIS, SSO (Safety Security Office), SO (Safety Officer), SHE (Safety Health & Environment), BWM (Ballast Water management) and Tankerman Highest Grade.
Flag states approval is a very important factor, as some authorities and classification societies have additional requirements. Seagull has gain several approvals for their courses from flag states and with the Norwegian Maritime Directorate EN and is in the process of gaining Approvals with USCG & Transportation dept of Canada for SSO/VSO application, DNV SeaSkill for SSO renewal application, AMSA, Malta and DNV SeaSkill for ECDIS. Mr. Frette also referred to the substantial cost savings associated with the use of these Onboard Training Courses, citing examples of how some Seagull customers have already benefited.
The next speaker was Mr. Fotios Kamperis, Manager of Tsakos Shipping & Trading S.A. HR & Training Department, who shared his experience using both Seagull’s training product and NewsLink’s services. Specifically, Mr. Kamperis told the meeting that Tsakos Shipping & Trading uses Seagull Training System throughout their fleet along with their company’s offices worldwide, where CES is also implemented.
Lifetime training is an essential element for the group, therefore it formulated these activities in partnership with a single operator and established a dedicated training dept. Mr. Kamperis pointed out that CBT offers major opportunities but the presence of an instructor cannot be substituted. In 2004 the Tsakos Group commenced the introduction of onboard CBT courses, the progress was very effective and the crew actively participated and there soon appeared an improvement in the knowledge of personnel. The Manila office reports to Tsakos Seagull database and onboard electronic training is now incorporated in standard company procedures. After the first training matrix was developed and established onboard the initial feedback was very positive. According to Mr. Kamperis the company confirmed that ships with short voyages were able to use electronic training because their crew can stop one CBT module and continue it later, plus on ships with longer voyages the crew were able to use electronic training because they had greater opportunities.
The Crew Evaluation System (CES) test proved a very useful and effective tool for the evaluation and recruitment of officers.
Concluding Mr. Kamperis said that the company also enjoyed the following advantages from Seagull’s programs:
· Full support by Seagull’s Greek office along with Seagull engineers who respond immediately to the company’s needs
•Complete and detailed reports every month
•Central control of training with monthly reports through a web portal tool
•Certification of onboard courses is also an excellent service providing essential certification of the successful completion of onboard courses.
•New CBT modules such as “best practice for piracy” to be delivered soon, will satisfy current needs and be a useful addition to the library.
Referring to Newslink, the daily electronic crew newspaper, Mr. Kamperis told the Conference that he had received positive comments from all around the fleet for the Newslink service during the 1st evaluation period.
Furthermore, according to Mr. Kamperis it’s a service that:
· is simple and easy to implement
· offers English language practice
· boosts the morale of the crew
· develops a safety orientation through daily newspapers and the quarterly infotainment DVD
· is cost effective with a special value package for big fleets.
The last speaker was Mr. George Hoyt CEO and founder of Newslink, who commenced the second section of the forum by referring to the contents of Newslink daily crew newspaper, which includes such items as sports and weekly entertainment.
He also focused on Newslink infotainment quarterly DVD, offered free to subscribers, which provides seafarers with Marine Safety news, interviews with industry experts & senior executives from several shipping organizations such as IMO, INTERTANKO, Nautical Institute, HELMEPA, etc and various entertainment activities.
Regarding Intermanager’s KPI project George Hoyt told the Conference that shipping still faces a shortage of 90.000 officers despite the recession therefore we still need to recruit & train new personnel in order to cover existing market’s needs. The problem is very crucial as it takes 8-12 years to develop a master or a chief engineer. Another important factor is that the seafarers’ wage increased by 11.2% in 2008, Mr. Hoyt pointed out that despite the recession we still had a rise in seafarers’ wages. Successful training was still very critical and we need to train our crew more effectively because of the cultural differences and very poor communication.
According to Mr. Hoyt, the Intermanager’s KPI project is a concept for the quantitative measurement of performance, it boosts accomplishment and provides an efficient communication tool.
TMSA, TOTS, ETOTS and KPIs will all be very important elements in the formation of a solution to the industry’s greatest challenge & biggest problem: the image of shipping. In conclusion Mr. Hoyt told those present that for more information visit: www.faceofshipping.com this provides news and useful information of the shipping industry and is provided by NewsLink Services.