A Maritime University is set to be launched in Shanzu, Mombasa North-mainland in September this year. This will bring to a total of two Maritime Universities in Kenya with access to the sea. Sea training had been undertaken in Kenya upon the establishment of the Mombasa Institute of Muslim Education (MIOME), now the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM), in 1951. But strangely the training program collapsed for unclear reasons. Sea training world-wide has always been a vital stage in forming the future officers not only in the area concerning Maritime Education and Training (MET), but also in forming the unique characteristics of marine officers, such as self-developmental education, responsibility, attentiveness, planning, readiness, spontaneousness, accuracy, self-denial, obedience, leadership, etc. An integral part of the programs for Sea Training is the practical knowledge that students gain by actual work experience. The most important component for Sea Training is learning by doing while at sea and in port. The Sea cadets are expected to have ability to provide a lot of experience in the shortest possible time. They are required to learn fast and across a wide syllabus while at sea. During their first academic semesters they are expected to accumulate theoretical knowledge in the basic studies, but this will be their first opportunity to see the same worked out in practice and applied to the reality of ships operations. In order to produce a high quality of merchant mariners there is a need to have a highly sophisticated training ship. This highly sophisticated training ship must be fully equipped and designed to develop trainees’ skills and trends, in order to enable them to work as marine deck and engineering officers in accordance with the latest international standards set for sea training. Given Kenya does not have a training ship nor a merchant ship ,the Government should enter into an arrangement with foreign shipping companies for providing training slots on board their vessels. As it is Kenyan merchant mariners mostly end up serving on foreign vessels and such arrangements would be more beneficial for foreign ship-owners. P/S: I apologize to the group for not being as present as I would wish. I took time off for matters unrelated to the maritime industry (Actually writing academic papers with no relevance to the group).
Posted on: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 05:49:55 +0000
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