IRClass Academy Focuses on Maritime Professional Development

 

The course featured in-depth interaction with subject matter experts and practising managers from the industry that included the CEO of Indian operations of a global company owning bulk carriers, and the Technical Directors and Heads of Chartering from leading Indian shipping companies, and a well-known Marine Insurance Consultant.

 

Faculty from IRClass comprised senior surveyors to Chief Surveyors, who shared their knowledge and experience with the trainees and covered a host of field examples relating to critical areas such as advance planning and preparations for various surveys, estimation of steel renewals, prevention of detentions by flag and port state inspections, etc. The value-addition in terms of proactive managerial interventions was highly appreciated by the participants.

 

Designed in close consultation with these leading players in India’s maritime sector, the course content centrered around the regulatory, technical and commercial aspects of shipping – the three distinct areas around which all operational decisions are made and implemented.

 

“Modules focus sharply on prevention of time and cost overruns through proactive interventions at the superintendent’s level,” said C. Sriramamurthy, Chief Operating Officer of IRClass. “Consequently, deeper understanding of the survey requirements, regulatory regime and port state control and appreciation of industry best practices, performance management, budgeting and commercial decision-making are the key ingredients.” 

 

“Our objectives and scope are in line with the provisions of Regulation 2.8 of MLC 2006 which call for concerted national efforts in building portable competencies of seafarers, both onboard and ashore,” he added.

Participants comprised seafarers aspiring to become superintendents and supervisors and managers from shipping and ship management companies, shipyards, offshore vessel operators and ports and terminals – representing a wide range of backgrounds with a common interest: to build managerial competencies in ship operations.

In the absence of a structured training regime, most superintendents learn on-the-job, a long and arduous process. Through its interaction with the shipping industry, IRClass Academy identified a need to fill this gap.

Built around recent case studies, the program challenges the participants to apply their learning outcomes to operational aspects of Ship Superintendency.

The four-day course culminated in a Capstone Exercise, the objective being to pull together various elements of learning and apply them to a typical real-life operational situation.

“The response has been very positive,” said U.R.P. Sudhakar, Head of IRClass Academy, “with some owners asking IRClass Academy to develop and deliver customized courses exclusively for their managers in the near future.”

There was also a suggestion that a one-day workshop may be designed for the benefit of practising ship superintendents to update their knowledge of upcoming regulations.

 

IRClass Academy is gearing up to offer this course at regular intervals in coming years in a variety of flavours customised to suit all special requirements.

With the Indian government placing a great deal of emphasis on skill development and the region representing a huge cluster of resources aspiring to acquire managerial skills, this particular course is poised to emerge as the flagship program.