ClassNK Approves ECDIS Training Course

press release January 30, 2012

Koichi Fujiwara, Executive Vice President of ClassNK presented the official certificates to Masami Sasaki, Managing Executive Officer of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd.

ClassNK Issues Certification for ECDIS Training Course and Manning Services Provided by the “K” LINE Group.

ClassNK announced today that it had issued generic training course approval to an Electronic Chart Display and Information System (ECDIS) course offered by K Line Maritime Academy (Philippine) (KLMA (Phili)), a group company of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. The approval, which certifies that this course complies with International Maritime Organization (IMO) standards and the leading classification society’s new Standard for Maritime Education & Training, is the first of its kind issued by ClassNK in the Philippines.

ClassNK also issued certification for seafarer recruitment and placement service providers in line with the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC 2006) to another member of the “K” LINE Group, Manila-based manning company Ventis Maritime Corporation (VMC). The approval confirms the company’s conformance with the standards set forth in Regulation 1.4 (Recruitment and Placement) of the MLC 2006 which was adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2006 to help ensure the safety and protect the rights of seafarers.

New requirements for the installation of ECDIS systems are due to be phased in from July of this year. Under these requirements, it will become mandatory for vessels to use ECDIS as their primary means of navigation. In line with these same requirements, masters and deck officers will be required to undergo training in the use of ECDIS and demonstrate a clear understanding of and proficiency in these new systems.

In recent years, calls for greater professionalism and improvements in quality are driving the demand for third party certification in the global manning industry. The MLC 2006 requires that shipowners who recruit crew through seafarer recruitment and placement services in countries or territories that have not adopted the MLC confirm that the service providers they use conform to convention standards. However, concrete guidelines for confirming such compliance are not provided in the text of the MLC. In order to assist both shipowners and recruitment and placement service providers in meeting the MLC’s requirements, ClassNK has developed a new certification standard, as well as approval procedures for verifying the compliance of seafarer recruitment and placement providers.

Koichi Fujiwara, Executive Vice President of ClassNK presented the official certificates to Masami Sasaki, Managing Executive Officer of Kawasaki Kisen Kaisha, Ltd. and Satoru Kuboshima, President of “K” Line Ship Management Co., Ltd. at ClassNK’s head office in Tokyo on 23 January 2012.

“The maritime industry is facing a number of new challenges, of which training and maintaining skilled crews is among the most important. ClassNK is dedicated to providing solutions to these challenges. Be it through the certification of training courses such as that offered by KLMA (Phili), or the approval of recruitment and placement services, such as those provided by VMC, our Society is developing a full range of services that leverage our decades of certification experience in these new, emerging fields”.