Wärtsilä Voyage is to equip the Technical University of Mombasa (TUM) with Cloud Simulation services. This will make TUM the first African university to adopt cloud-based maritime training services. The contract was signed in November 2021 and the services will be implemented from January 2022 onwards.

The Maritime Training Academy at TUM is a leading maritime education university in East Africa and this modern training technology will greatly help the Kenyan and other African seafarers to be trained remotely on STCW Training (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers) as well as on other value-added training courses using cutting-edge digital learning platforms. The SaaS cloud simulation services will be available at TUM and will come with all the benefits inherent to cloud-based training. The sessions will always have up-to-date databases, content (exercises and scenarios) will be tailored, and training will be accessible on-demand from anywhere and with a wide range of devices.

Cloud Simulators are complementary to on-premises simulators and ensure top-notch remote training even for off-campus seafarers located in far-flung parts of Africa, or for that matter, anywhere in the world.

“The global pandemic highlighted the importance of having strong remote training facilities and TUM is proud to be the first African University to deliver on that front. Wärtsilä Voyage was the perfect partner to realise our strategy of future-ready simulator training. We share the same vision of having smart, high-quality and effective seafarer learning and assessment techniques. Wärtsilä Voyage’s expertise and systems, which we thoroughly tested for a month, now enable us to deliver safe and effective remote simulator’s training for our officers and customers,” said Prof Laila Abubakar, The Vice Chancellor, Technical University of Mombasa.

“TUM is a long-recognised leader in identifying and adopting creative innovations that are regarded as industry best practices for crew training and assessment. We are happy to have found the right solution for their remote simulators training needs and to have become the first company to introduce Cloud Simulation services in the African region with our market-leading solution. We are committed to continuing our collaboration with TUM for a long term,” said Mather Al-Ali, Head of Sales, Middle East, Africa & India (MEAI) at Wärtsilä Voyage.

A new milestone in African Maritime Training

The SaaS cloud simulation services will be available at TUM and will come with all the benefits inherent to cloud-based training. The sessions will always have up-to-date databases, content (exercises and scenarios) will be tailored, and training will be accessible on-demand from anywhere and with a wide range of devices.

Cloud Simulators are complementary to on-premises simulators and ensure top-notch remote training even for off-campus seafarers located in far-flung parts of Africa, or for that matter, anywhere in the world.

As future tech becomes more sophisticated and adoption to green catches pace, regular training with digital learning tools is bound to become the norm. The new DNV Class D Certification standard introduced in July this year for cloud training further made the case for the value created by remote simulation and learning — representing a positive step in the ongoing transition towards blended learning within the maritime educational industry.

“Wärtsilä Voyage’s NTPRO simulator was the first Interactive ‘instructor-led’ cloud training solution to gain the new DNV Class D Certification, officially verifying that Wärtsilä online simulation meets or exceeds the already established, and globally recognised requirements for seafarer certification,” adds Al-Ali.

“We will continue to innovate and exceed in this space to considerably increase the possibilities for shipping institutes and their learners and enable the utmost flexibility and efficiency in maritime training. We strongly believe blended learning is the future of maritime training.”