Government of the Federated States of Micronesia

Maritime Training Course Materials Presented to COM-FSM

PALIKIR, Pohnpei (FSM INFORAMTION SERVICE): September 28, 1998
– In a brief ceremony held at the Department of Transportation,
Communication and Infrastructure, the Secretary of the Department
presented course materials for Maritime Training Program to College
of Micronesia-FSM President.

Secretary Lukner Weilbacher extended his thanks to COM-FSM
Board of Regents for the approval and delivery of the maritime
program under the auspices of COM-FSM, and thanked COM-FSM President
Susan Moses for accepting the materials.

The course materials include packages for new entrants into
the profession or pre-sea course for deck and engine-room ratings,
course materials for class 6 masters/engineers, and for class
5 masters and engineers. Still others are forthcoming and as
soon as those are received they will be transmitted to COM-FSM.

Moses said that COM-FSM is taking a “can do” approach
in regards to the program.

The materials were the direct result of a project approved
by the Association of Pacific Island Maritime Training Institutions
and Maritime Authorities (APIMTIMA), during its second meeting
in April 1997 in Suva, Fiji.

With funding assistance secured from the Government of New
Zealand, the Maritime Program of the Secretariat of the Pacific
Community (SPC), acting as the Secretariat of the APIMTIMA, contracted
and engaged the expertise of the Australian Maritime College’s
commercial arm AMC Search Limited, to develop the courses for
the region. The materials presented to Moses are the culmination
of all those efforts, said Matthias Ewarmai, Manager, Sea Transportation
System Development Branch of the Division of Maritime Transportation.

The project to develop model training packages came about
as a result of the entry into force on the first of February,
1997, of the 1995 amendments to the International Convention
on Standard of Training Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers
(STCW), 1978. The Convention prescribes minimum international
standards to which seafarers must either meet or exceed.

Virtually, the world before the first of February 1997, saw
all kinds of standards of training and certification being practiced.

Even with the entry into force in 1984 of the 1978 STCW Convention,
many of these varied standards were still practiced internationally,
mainly because many of the requirements of the Convention were
left up to Governments, according to Ewarmai.

February 1, 1997 marked the beginning of a new era where standards
of training and certification of seafarers worldwide for the
first time, will be monitored by the International Maritime Organization,
the world body which oversees safety of life and property at
sea and the protection of the marine environment through the
highest practicable standards of ship safety, in order to ensure
that the standards being adhered to by Governments do indeed
meet the standards laid down in the 1995 amendments to the 1978
STCW Convention.

The materials meet the standards of training and certification
provided under the 1995 Amendment to the STCW Convention, and
go on further in providing the ease for cross training for fishermen
who may otherwise wish to work on merchant vessels.

“We wish to take this opportunity, therefore, to thank
the Government of New Zealand for providing the funds for the
development of these training materials, the lack of which we
would be unable to achieve our aim of a safety conscious culture
within the FSM maritime community,” said Secretary Weilbacher.
In conclusion, he said, “We also would like to give credits
and certainly a million thank you’s to those people working for
the Regional Maritime Program of SPC for their untiring efforts
to promote and enhance ship safety and protection of the marine
environment within the Pacific Region, with particular emphasis
on the FSM.