Page 4 - The SkillSea Toolbox

SkillSea – Train-The-Trainer Manual

Introduction

The Train-the-Trainer Manual on Educational Packages (the Manual) aims to provide the support necessary
for maritime lecturers, trainers, and instructors in implementing, fully or partially, educational packages
developed by the SkillSea project. This Manual is designed for lecturers experienced in maritime education
and training and does not cover basic education principles or the nature of maritime education and training
(MET).

National MET systems and the backgrounds of students may vary considerably across jurisdictions. In
addition, SkillSea partners agree that technological developments in many areas of the maritime industry
are, and will remain, fast-paced. Moreover, certain aspects of the future of shipping – such as the feasibility
of various alternative fuels – have not been fully established. For these reasons, development of ready-to-
use educational packages has been deemed inappropriate. Instead, SkillSea educational packages have
been designed to demonstrate examples of sustainable cooperation among industry stakeholders and MET
institutions in the development of future-focused courses for maritime education.

It is expected that SkillSea educational packages will be used to assist the development and implementation
of a future-focused programme or course. However, the learning outcomes, syllabus and other content of
the course might need to be customised to meet the learning profiles of students as well as to account for
their current knowledge base, skillset, and the expected learning environment. If such changes are made,
lecturers must ensure that various aspects of the course – such as learning outcomes, teaching methods
and assessments – are realigned accordingly.

The proposed educational packages offer example lesson plans and teaching materials. The learning
outcomes, teaching methods, and assessment methods have been aligned for demonstration purposes. It
is expected that implementation of these educational packages will require development of learning and
teaching resources and may require the professional development of the lecturers to update their
knowledge with the latest industry trends.

Background to the SkillSea project

The purpose of this section is to provide a background to the SkillSea project so the reader may better
appreciate its aims and objectives and the nature of the educational packages.

The SkillSea project aims to ensure that Europe’s maritime professionals possess required digital, green,
and leadership skills for the rapidly changing international maritime labour market. This project seeks to
bridge the gap between the maritime industry and its educational sector, to produce a sustainable maritime
skills strategy and, most importantly, to establish structural cooperation among stakeholders.

Three of the objectives of the SkillSea project are:

• to analyse the effect of technological developments on the industry’s skills requirements

• to identify current and future skills gaps and to develop educational packages to bridge those gaps

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