Maritime Training Insights – MarTID 2021 Report Available

As trainers in the maritime industry, we benefit from the sharing of information. Understanding what training trends are emerging, how training budgets are growing (or shrinking), what training models are on the rise or decline, and how the world pandemic has affected training operations is all of great important to us. Having a global understanding of these questions and more allows us to improve based on best practice, and to prepare for the future in a way we could not possibly achieve in isolation.

It is our belief in this basic truth that incentivized the World Maritime University, New Wave Media, and Marine Learning Systems to launch the Maritime Training Insights Database and survey in 2018. Now, in 2021, we are very pleased to again our freely available fourth annual report for the benefit of the maritime training community. 

• Click here to read the 2021 MarTID report on Maritime Training Practices

The past 20 months have brought unprecedented challenges and changes to maritime training. There are few human endeavours untouched by the global COVID-19 pandemic, and maritime training has arguably been affected more than most. With respect to the pandemic, this year’s MarTID survey was designed to not only uncover the challenges that have arisen and the industry’s response to those challenges, but more importantly has attempted to understand how those challenges and responses will permanently shape the future of maritime training. This is the focus of the special topic for the 2021 MarTID training practices report.

In addition to this special topic, MarTID continues to survey the same consistent set of annual baseline training metrics that it has gathered since the inception of the report. The consistency of these metrics and the survey questions designed to collect them ensures that trends are revealed and tracked, unpolluted by variances in the survey instrument. There are some notable datapoints in the 2021 report on budgets, training methods, and other topics.

Past surveys have revealed a consistent trend of growth in training budgets for vessel operators. Roughly 30% saw a decrease in this year’s training budget when compared to last year’s, and an additional 50% saw no increase in their budgets. Many of the respondents cited COVID-19 as the cause of the reduction or lack of growth.

Despite the difficulty in maintaining in-person training due to the pandemic, face-to-face classroom training was still cited as the most commonly used training method, with 85% of operators using it to a high or medium degree. Even with its continued high utilization, face-to-face training experienced the largest decrease in usage, with 60% of respondents reporting a decrease from the previous year. A further 25% expect to utilize it less in the coming year.

The second most used training method, e-learning using internet-based sources, was reported to be in high and medium usage by 76% of respondents. A full 80% of operators saw an increase in internet-based e-learning usage. Three quarters of the respondents anticipate a further increase of internet-based e-learning in the coming year.

The COVID-19 pandemic and the responses of different jurisdictions have affected many education and training regimes adversely. Unsurprisingly, the report confirms that the pandemic has, overall, had a negative effect on training with training levels having been reduced for both operators and maritime training institutions.

Over half of operators saw a decrease in their training budget due to the pandemic and nearly 70% felt that overall training delivery was reduced. Notably, 17% saw a budget decrease of more than 75%. In terms of methodologies, more than 75% of operators who responded indicated that they had moved nearly all in-person training to remote methods. These are expected reactions as nearly 90% of operators report that their ability to deliver training has been affected by travel restrictions and other impediments. More than 60% of responding operators expect that this training slowdown has created a backlog which will have to be cleared as the effects of the pandemic ease.

These are only a few highlights from the in-depth 2021 training practices report. 

Until next time, keep well and sail safely!