VIDEO: MarTID 2021 ... A Call to Action for Global Survey of Maritime Training Practices

The 2021 Maritime Training Insights Database (MarTID) survey is about to be launched. This is a unique and pivotal time in maritime training. The pandemic has forced us to adapt our training and has accelerated training innovations. This year’s survey is uniquely important for its ability to help us learn from these unprecedented changes to training practices. If we do not survey and document the changes resulting from the pandemic, we lose a unique opportunity to learn. Therefore, the industry needs you to take 20 minutes to complete the survey at www.MarTID.org. Your contribution will enable the creation of 2021’s comprehensive, freely distributed, global maritime training practices report that you, the members of our industry rely on more heavily each year.

• Vessel Owners: Click HERE to take your survey
• Maritime Training Institutions: Click HERE to take your survey
• Seafarers: Click HERE to take your survey

This year has been, and continues to be, both a difficult and transitional year for maritime training. The world-wide pandemic has created training challenges throughout the industry. The impacts have ranged from difficult to existential for maritime operators and education & training institutes. For seafarers, the impacts have been similarly varied and difficult. These challenges have brought the need for adaptation and innovation. Many of the forced changes, no doubt, are inferior but necessary initiatives to keep training going in less-than-optimal circumstances. Others are positive, accelerated innovations which are beneficial and will persist post-pandemic. We need to understand and document these new initiatives.

It is with the above in mind that this year’s special topic for the annual Maritime Training Insights survey focuses on the impacts on training resulting from the pandemic. We need you to tell your 2020/2021 training story. Most importantly we are surveying how seafarers, operators and maritime training institutions have adapted in reaction to the pandemic, both temporarily and indefinitely. In addition to this year’s focus on the effects of the pandemic, the survey covers a consistent, core set of data to track important and long-term trends in maritime training practices.

The maritime training practices survey and its resulting annual report are non-commercial initiatives supported by the World Maritime University, New Wave Media, and Marine Learning Systems in partnership together. This year, like last, we have created three separate surveys: one to be completed by seafarers, one by vessel operators, and one by maritime training institutions. The more responses we have, the more accurate and useful the data in the report. And the early trend is excellent – the 2019 survey received twice the responses of 2018. The 2020 survey roughly doubled again. Please help us double the responses once more for the 2021 survey.

When visiting www.MarTID.org on your way to complete the survey, take the opportunity to review some of the revelations contained in the 2020 training practices report. There you will find some fascinating data. For example, the report details the top training drivers, how training budgets are changing, and where some of the money is going. Additionally, the survey contains useful information on the major new maritime training initiatives underway and being planned by operators and training institutions across the globe. If you are involved in training, this list may provide some outstanding ideas to consider at your organization.

The 2020 report also focuses on practices and approaches to training quality that will be of interest to every organization focusing on continuous improvement in training outcomes. In that report are ideas for training quality improvement and data that can be used by any organization to benchmark their training quality efforts.

Whether you work as a training executive for a vessel operator, as a faculty member or administrator at a maritime training institute, or as a seafarer, we need your survey responses. Please visit www.MarTID.org to fill out the survey and then watch for the release of the 2021 report.
Until next time, thank you and sail safely!