On June 26 Avior Marine Inc received accreditation from the Philippines Marine Authoritites (MARINA) for its Training Center. Avior can now facilitate accredited STCW courses in house for its Seafarers and issue Certificates acknowledged by the Flag State.
The Training Activities will operate under the name "Avior Academy" and will be operated from Avior's premises in Alabang. The first course accredited is SAT/SDSD and first classes are expected to be run in July for the groups of cadets coming to Manila for induction.
According to Avior President Ms Edna Ranara the accreditation is a next step in Avior's history in becoming a one stop facility for Seafarers and Principals. "With STCW2010 deadlines nearing we thought we should take some responsibility in being able to ensure our Seafarers are properly trained and qualified. It is our expectation that training capacity of the industry will be stretched to deal with the increased demand closer to the 2017 deadline and we want to be pro-active in this".
Ms Ranara continues, the accreditation process also learned as a few things on training development and assessment and this is something we can build on. Apart from the training we hope this facility will provide some development opportunities for our Officers as well. We will be needing course developers, instructors and assessors and we already have facilitated some of our Officers to obtain the necessary qualifications for this.
Last but not least we plan to lower the barrier to training by offering "train now-pay later" facilities for selected Seafarers. Ms Ranara concludes, "so all in all this development will be beneficial to all stakeholders, Principals, Seafarers and Avior"