Maritime Academy of Nigeria trains 8,508 seafarers in 3 years

In the last three years, the Maritime Academy of Nigeria, Oron, Akwa Ibom, has trained a total number of 8,508 seafarers for the manpower needs of the industry.

Contained in a Briefing Note explaining the performance of the present Management of the Academy under the Rector, Commodore Emmanuel Effedua (Rtd.) in his three years in office and the year ahead counting,  seafarers trained for the period from January 2018 to March 2020 before the national lockdown, include participants for Certificate of Competence.

The breakdown shows that 1,707 participants were trained for the Certificate of competence, while 6,801 participants were trained on the Mandatory Short Courses.

The Management has also taken steps to ensure that all deck cadets of the Academy are registered as associate members of the Nautical Institute, UK, while all the Engineering cadets have been registered as associate members of the Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMEREST) UK.

Their memberships of these professional international maritime bodies have given them edges over their counterparts in other maritime institutions, the Rector noted.

The cadets’ training programme has also been improved with a 4-month sea experience for 59 cadets to consolidate classroom instruction.  Hence, the sea experience provided, has better placed the cadets competitively ahead of their counterparts in other maritime institutions.

The Management, however, noted that “ the sea experience is not the actual sea time required for cadets; it is only a live exposure to the maritime platforms and environment, which would better enhance their understanding during classroom instruction.”

To achieve set goals for quality manpower development for the industry, the Rector, in the Briefing Note said that the Academy had to carry out staff audit to weed out ‘ghost workers’ ascertain those with relevantly qualification to be able to train cadets according to designed standard academically.

More professionals including two Captains have been recruited, just as the Academy has also acquired Simulators from India.

More professionals including two Captains have been recruited, just as the Academy has also acquired Simulators from India.

The Briefing Note reads in part that : “ an audit exercise using biometrics to capture all staff of the Academy revealed that as at July 2018, the staff strength of the Academy was 639 as against the strength of 804 previously declared; thus, weeding out 165 ghost workers previously in the system.

“As part of the exercise, a new smart identity card was issued to the present staff.  The card has a micro-chip that contains all information about each staff and is also configured for access control as well as the biometric staff attendance clock-in/clock-out systems installed to check attendance related infractions by staff.

“Furthermore, to consolidate on the gains of the staff audit, an exercise to determine the authenticity of certificates presented by staff (Academic and Non-Academic) at the point of employment and during their service in the Academy was conducted in October 2019.

“This further exposed some irregularities in employment as about 96 staff were found to have been employed either with fake certificates or without any result at all.  Some of these irregularities are currently being addressed.”

Effedua also explained in the Briefing Note that Management had to remodel structures in the Academy in order to provide a global standard training and learning facility.

On the strength of that, the Management have had to remodel the Library and Resource Centre, the Auditorium, the new Simulation Centre, existing cadets’ hostels as well as the old ICT/Simulation Centre.

It adds that: “Additionally, extensive renovations and remodelling works were carried out on the Academic Block, with all the lecture theatres and classrooms on the building, remodelled to smart classrooms and theatres.

“In the same vein, all existing classrooms in the Academy have been remodelled to smart classrooms, fitted with multimedia devices including SMART interactive whiteboards and projectors.

“Furthermore, the deplorable state of sporting facilities in the Academy was observed to have negative effects on physical training and fitness of cadets.

“Consequently, all the sporting facilities including sports pavilion were remodelled while the basketball, lawn tennis and volleyball courts were reconstructed and fitted with synthetic turfs,” the Rector’s briefing note states.

Capacity building for staff made the Academy project to train 30 of its staff comprising lecturers/instructors and ICT technical staff in India on the use, handling and maintenance of the newly procured simulators.

Keeping up with its projection for staff training, the Management said “the first batch of 15 staff have completed the training in India, while the second batch of another 15 staff are on hold pending the relaxation of the international border closure.

“Furthermore, six (6) Seminars/Workshops have been organized to enhance the capacity of staff in general, with emphasis on training the trainers. In addition, staff have attended International Conferences such as IMO conferences, the Blue Economy Conference in Kenya and the Offshore Technology Conference.

“The participation at the seminars and conferences are aimed at improving capacity of staff and enable them function effectively as lecturers.The Academy has also introduced mentoring programme for middle level officers to build their capacity for career progression.”

The Management of the Academy said it would continue to deploy its resources appropriately to ensure complete consolidation of all it has done in efforts to further improve the Academy.