VIKING Saatsea has achieved flag state approval for its STCW on-board training solution with refresher modules according to new STCW 2010 Manila Amendments.
The approval of the company’s 24/7, customizable certification management training (CMT) solutions enables shipowners to keep crew certificates up to date while at sea, cutting the number of days needed for land-based training from as many as nine to just one – a major cost and logistics saving – and ensures instant, automatic certification the moment training has been completed.
Beating other training and certification providers to the punch, VIKING Saatsea received approval from the Danish Maritime Association (DMA), paving the way to other flag-state approvals over the months to come.
Granting of the approval is timely, too, as shipowners look for solutions to handle the demands of STCW re-certification under new SOLAS rules for commercial vessels, which come into force on the 1st of January, 2017.
VIKING Saatsea’s state-of-the-art onboard CMT solution is accessible both online and offline when there is no current connection, making them more practical and convenient than land-based training. They also offer faster, real-time access to up-to-date documentation for administrators.
Fewer days on land Specifically, VIKING Saatsea’s solution has received flag-state approval for the STCW courses Personal Survival Techniques (PST) (STCW Reg VI/1 Code A-VI/1 Table A-VI/1-1), and Fire Prevention and Fire Fighting (FPFF) (STCW Reg VI/1 Code A-VI/1 Table A-VI/1-2). These two courses can take several days of onshore training to complete. Now it is possible to complete most of the training onboard.
Another advantage of VIKING Saatsea’s solution is that the underlying software platform can be used for company specific in-house training and certification applications.