Completed project · 2014–2016
Promoting Maritime ECVET Actions
In the maritime sector, content components of vocational education and training are regulated, bindingly for all countries, by the standards of the “International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers” (STCW) formulated by the International Maritime Organization (IMO). The aim of the convention is globally uniform minimum regulations for maritime education and for qualifications in the fields of engineering and watchkeeping.
Nevertheless, in practice there are relevant differences between countries (and VET providers) in the respective curricula, both with regard to the content and the structures of the qualifications.
The concrete project objectives consist of a comparative analysis of the existing national VET provision in the maritime sector (Germany, Finland, Malta, Italy and England), the formulation of recommendations for the use of ECVET (European Credit System for Vocational Education and Training) in the maritime sector, and the development of an exemplary joint curriculum on the protection of the maritime environment based on the STCW standards.
It may seem obvious that the standards of the STCW Convention, with their uniform international requirements in the maritime sector, simplify the implementation of ECVET. However, norms of different transnational institutions by no means ease the starting position in the sector; rather, they aggravate it in that each of them must be complied with. Thus, the development of transnational curricula in the maritime sector that take into account both STCW and the – positive – elements of ECVET, and thereby increase the transparency and comparability of European training programmes in the sector, represents a serious challenge. Therefore, the MariePRO project analyses the experience of other sectors with similar constellations, such as the technical aviation occupations, in order to use it for an optimal inclusion of selected elements of the ECVET recommendation.
MariePRO will develop essential background information and approaches for formulating common standards at European level for VET providers. Should a common European framework for vocational education and training in the maritime sector following the structures of the STCW be developed, the preparatory work of the project can be used directly.