• Journal of the Korean Society of Marine Environment & Safety
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• v.23 no.7
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• pp.847-857
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• 2017

The present situations of the education and training systems for the response to marine HNS spill incidents in domestic and foreign countries were reviewed and the plans to improve domestic system were suggested on the basis of the comparison between domestic and foreign education systems. There were almost no private education and training institutions in Korea, and they have not been activated, compared with those of foreign countries such as USA, Canada, Australia and UK. The domestic marine HNS-related education has been implemented uniformly under Korean government initiative. In addition, there were differences in the targets and duration of the education offered by Korea Coast Guard Academy (KCGA) and Marine Environment Research & Training Institute (MERTI) in Korea. Domestic HNS-related curriculum was relatively simple, compared with the curricula of foreign countries, and has not accepted two levels (operational level and manager level) required in HNS model courses of International Maritime Organization (IMO). The domestic education and training period was short relatively to those of foreign countries. The following suggestions were made to improve the education and training system for the response to domestic marine chemical incidents. In the short term, an HNS education and training management consultation body (tentative name) should be established, with both KCGA and MERTI participating jointly while maintaining the current system of the two institutions (KCGA and MERTI) simultaneously. In the more distant and long term, the HNS-related departments of KCGA and MERTI should be incorporated into a National Marine HNS Response Academy (tentative name) as unified system to enable international competitiveness.