ECDIS Ltd have further developed its not for profit Annual Competency Assurance Training (ACAT) courses by introducing an offline version.
Listening to the requirements of many of their clients with little or no internet onboard, ECDIS Ltd have developed an almost fully offline version of their ACAT courses, removing the need for constant internet connection.
The courses share the exact same content as their online counterparts, however the courses can be purchased and downloaded onshore or when internet is available, and run on any PC for up to 365 days, making it highly versatile.
George Ward from ECDIS Ltd, one of the key architects and developers of the ACAT courses, states: "We have had incredible interest and uptake of our new ECDIS ACAT courses. But we are acutely conscious of the fact that many shipping companies globally are yet to implement reliable (or indeed any) internet onboard their vessels. As such we have invested heavily in rolling out a new format for ACAT running parallel with the existing online training solutions already available"
The courses are available as two different license options; a single license for individual crew costing £15 ($19) per year, and a "per hull" option at £150 ($189) per year, enabling companies to register an entire hull with unlimited crew.
Once the course has been completed by a student, they simply email a unique verification code to ECDIS Ltd HQ and are issued with a digital copy of their certificate, valid for 365 days.