Capacity Building: Maritime Academy Trains Varsity Students On Mandatory Courses

The Maritime Academy of Nigeria (MAN), Oron, announced on Tuesday that it has welcomed another group of trainees from the Nigeria Maritime University (NMU), Okerenkoko, Delta State.

The training was in fulfilment of its statutory mandate of producing a competent workforce needed for the smooth operations of the Maritime and Allied Industries.

In a statement by the academy, the training of NMU cadets was in fulfilment of the commitment of the Institution to forge training collaborations with interested maritime institutions that would take advantage of the Academy’s training facilities to fast track national maritime education development.

The Rector of the Academy, Commodore Duja Emmanuel Effedua (Rtd), had earlier reiterated that the Academy under his watch would not hesitate to offer training to students of interested maritime institutions at subsidised rate.

This is in consideration of the current capacity of the Academy to offer quality maritime education and training due to its possession of latest training facilities for practical learning.

He said, “We have acquired state-of-the-art Simulators- the Full Mission Bridge Simulator, the Full Mission Engine Room Simulator, Ocular Vision Simulator and the Multifunctional Classroom: this is the latest training simulator composed of eight simulators which can seat up to thirty trainees at a time. The entire maritime industry, including the Oil and Gas sector have a lot to gain from these equipment. Also, our refresher courses are now more than we used to have and are available on a higher and improved scale.”

“We are not in competition with other maritime institutions, for the sake of national development of our maritime sub-sector, we are open to discussions with similar institutions that may wish to take advantage of our equipment to improve on their training,” he added.

On his part, the NMU SIWES Coordinator, Dr. John Eru, commended the Rector of the Academy for not just equipping the School with state-of-the-art training facilities but for also providing a beautifully conducive and serene environment for pleasurable learning.

He noted that the training collaboration between NMU and MAN has given their students the rare privilege of having a feel of real life on-board experiences during simulation classes at the simulators, jetty, fire bay and swimming pool as well as other multiple positive impacts on their learning experiences.

Dr. Eru also applauded the Rector’s commitment at not reneging on his promise of offering discounted charges on the course fees, which according to him, is what the Academy is charging their students.

He said, “The training collaboration with the Academy is very positive for our students financially, physically and educationally. Firstly, they get to save some money from what the Academy is charging them, secondly, the aspect of regimentation gives them a sense of real discipline which is what is required on board a vessel and finally, the practical training sessions with simulators, swimming pool, fire bay and jetty, equip them with the practical knowledge which will be very helpful to them when faced with real life situations on board.”

“Your training facilities are top notch, the Rector has done really well in acquiring them, any trainee who takes advantage of them definitely gets value for his or her money. The Academy has been very magnanimous to us, so on behalf of our Vice Chancellor and the entire school, I want to express our sincere appreciation to Rector and his Management for this kind gesture, he concluded.

This would be the fourth batch of NMU Students the Academy would be training, more batches are being expected. The three weeks long training exposes students to training in different courses that earn them certification in STCW Basic and Advanced Mandatory Courses.