RINA Launches Competence Management System Certification
International classification society RINA Services has launched a new Competence Management System certification which it says helps ship owners and managers to raise the skill levels of their crews and shore staff above the basic statutory requirements. Italy-based PB Tankers is the first company to benefit from the new voluntary certification.
RINA’s Competence Management System guides shipowners and managers to develop and maintain high level targeted skills in their ships’ crews and operational shore staff. Its certification benefits them by proving to charterers, authorities, financiers and insurers that the company has a system for ensuring that its crews have the skills and competence required to operate safely and efficiently in today’s complex marine environment.
Paolo Moretti, General Manager Marine, RINA Services, says, “The increasingly complex technologies on board ship, constantly changing and ever more stringent regulations and the close attention paid to the preparation of the personnel by the verifiers used by charterers and also Port State Control officials make it necessary for ship operators to upskill their crews, and they need a system to manage that. RINA’s CMS gives them both a system framework and recognition of their investment.”
RINA’s Competence Management System is set out in RINA NCC89E Rules for the Certification of Competence Management Systems. It requires companies to establish, document, implement and maintain a competence management system and continually improve its effectiveness in accordance with the requirements of the rules. The company must determine the criteria and methods needed to ensure that both the operation and control of the competence management system are effective and ensure the availability of resources and information necessary to support the operation and monitoring of the competence management system.
The CMS has to include a competence management policy, a plan for the implementation of the competence management system on board and ashore, defined company objectives and indicators relevant to the competence management system, procedures for competence assessment and gap analysis and a plan of competence acquisition. A monitoring and evaluation process must be built in.
The CMS is certified for three years following a process of initial audit, then maintained with annual audits. It can be integrated into an existing business management system and is complimentary to and works with and alongside industry systems such as the TMSA.
