ECDIS Training

MSG MarineServe GmbH Assists German Port State Control with ECDIS Training

MSG is pleased to have been chosen by BG Verkehr to provide training to help them fulfill their inspection obligations under the newly effective ECDIS mandate and the STCW requirements on ECDIS training and certification.

Following discussion on the particular nature of BG Verkehr’s responsibilities under both the ECDIS mandate for SOLAS vessels in accordance with the Paris MOU for equipment inspection and their approach to the responsibilities in the context of STCW, MSG MarineServe created a course tailored to those specific needs. The course was then delivered on 3 separate occasions covering 36 inspectors.

According to Ulrich Schmidt, Head of the Ship Safety Department of BG Verkehr: “The training provided us, given the imminent requirement that most SOLAS ships be equipped with ECDIS, with first class preparation for the future controls in accordance with STCW.”

MSG, as authorised training agent for NG Sperry Marine, Transas Marine, Raytheon Anschuetz, JRC, Imtech und ChartWorld, was able to capitalize on its many years of experience on multiple ECDIS brands to demonstrate both flexibility and responsiveness in generating the complete course with full supporting documentation in a short period of time to allow BG Verkehr to be ready at the start of 2012.

BG Verkehr is determined to ensure that its inspections and verification of OOW competence on ECDIS is not simply a paperwork exercise but actually checks the ability of the officers concerned to use the equipment properly and that the equipment is in good working order. It therefore faces a much more complex task than the OOW, who must work with only one, perhaps two, ECDIS variants at a time.