The New Role of Maritime Institutions from the Viewpoints on the Maritime Education, Training and Research Activities

Considering the present and expected demand for human resources by the maritime community, its quantity and quality depend on the number of the ships and the technology applied to them. Scientific and economic developments in this community bring the intensive use of modem technology for many of ships operation. Generally it effects to reduce the quantity of manpower, while it increases the requirement of qualifications of human resources to utilize such advanced technology. Considering above, the maritime education, training and research activities should be revised and updated according to the demand of the community. Because of a difference between the transition of the demand for the human resources and development of the maritime education, training and research activities, there are two most common questions as “What to teach” and “How to teach”. The first question has been asked for many years. The contents of maritime education and training are always related to the existing maritime knowledge and technology and should be updated with consideration of changes of the demand namely “Globalisation of maritime community”. It brings globalisation of the maritime education, training and research activities. The second question is still keeping us busy to look for the best way. Presently traditional methods are used together with new system, while the use of sophisticated simulation, communication and information systems etc. and it is changing our understanding on teaching. This paper introduces the new role of Maritime Institutions from the viewpoints of the maritime education. training and research activities. The role of guide for seafarers and maritime companies is always essential and the concepts such as “Refreshment Training”, “On the Job Training”, “Lifelong” or “Continuous Training” bring new understanding to the training period, trainee's age and position. As a result, the maritime institutions should be ready for their new role, which is, in brief, guiding the maritime society, recommending and providing new learning environments, organising research and developments, performing the education, training and assessment, improving existing methods and developing new methods of the education, training and assessment.