Efforts in Improving the Standard and Quality of Maritime Education and Training

It is continually reported that 80 % of accidents at sea are due to human factors, and yet no progress has been made towards reducing this percentage despite many changes and amendments to the IMO STCW Code. The question remains, why? This paper reports on the role of the national, European and international bodies, such as the national administration, EMSA and IMO in recent years, and their efforts towards improving the standards and quality of maritime education and training (MET). The paper reviews the recent changes to the IMO STCW in 2010 and identifies several deficiencies which still need the attention of the maritime community. There are special references to the grass root efforts, including the work of the networks such as MariFuture to support the wider efforts by national administrations, EMSA and the IMO. This paper consists of two parts. Part one refers to some of the serious deficiencies identified in a recent paper published as the MariFuture Development Paper in February 2013 and part two concerns the development of a new system, called UniMET, attempting to harmonise the Maritime Education and Training applying holistic approaches