Celebrating Day of the Seafarer 2024: Training Insight’s from Mintra’s Maritime Expert Ashley Oro

Seafaring remains one of the most demanding professions in the world. The unique blend of physical endurance, technical expertise and mental resilience required to stay safe and ahead of regulatory and technological changes can take their toll on even the most robust crew.

Day of the Seafarer was established by the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) in 2010, to recognise the invaluable contribution seafarers make to global trade and the economy. They are the unsung yet vital heroes of our everyday lives, transporting around 90% of the world’s goods including food, fuel and raw materials. Celebrated annually on June 25^th, the Day of the Seafarer theme for 2024 is "Navigating the Future: Safety First!"

With this in mind, we spent some time this week with one of Mintra’s highly experienced ex-seafarers, Ashley Oro, Project Manager and Instructional Designer. Ashley has an impressive maritime career with over ten years at sea as a Chief Officer, as well as deep technical and academic knowledge, having worked as a trainer and course director before moving into digital learning design.

Aside from his expansive knowledge, one of the main things that strikes you when you speak with Ash is his deep connection with the ocean and the challenges seafarers face. He is passionate about the difference good quality training can make when it comes to safety and communicating with seafarers in the right way.

One such area is how seafarers are often underestimated with respect to the breadth (and depth) of their expertise. As Ash pointed out, “There aren’t many workplaces in the world where every employee is highly trained to handle a fire, medical emergency or any number of technical challenges whilst sleeping yards away from their boss in a confined space for months on end.”

Ash started his career thinking he was going to be a Hydrographer (the science of measuring and describing the physical features of bodies of water). But following a work placement whilst at Plymouth University in the UK, he realised being confined to a desk wasn’t for him. He left university and pursued his passion for a life at sea, joining the Royal Fleet Auxiliary in the Navy, with a three-year Cadetship at Dartmouth where he qualified as an Officer of the Watch. Following this, he moved up the career ladder and eventually completed his military and nautical training as a Naval Chief Officer Unlimited seven years later. This achievement means he was qualified to sail any ship of any size, anywhere in the world. He picked up a number of accolades along the way, such as Point Defence Officer, Officer of the Quarter, Officer of the Watch and even qualified as Ship Surgeon (he has always regretted never getting to try his hand at removing an appendix!).

When he had a young family, he decided it was time to step ashore and became a lecturer at one of the UK’s top nautical institutions, the Fleetwood Nautical Campus of Lancaster University, recognised worldwide for its excellence in Merchant Navy education and training. He quickly moved on to become the Head of Blended and Digital learning. His dedication to education extended to online tutoring outside of the workplace, mentoring and drilling pre-officer candidates facing their brutal three-hour oral exams to become an Officer. During lockdown, he even found time to write and illustrate a book, "The Easy Cadet Revision Guide."

From Fleetwood, he moved into a full-time content creation role, first at Seably, and now Mintra, where he has so far created more than 300 courses, covering every area of maritime expertise as well as having written guidelines for both ISO and DNV.

Today, Mintra and our customers benefit from Ash working in our Product team where he has two roles. Firstly, he oversees the ongoing updating of our learning content, ensuring every lesson is verified, checked and up to date with the latest data and requirements of international bodies such as the International Maritime Organisation (IMO) or the International Labour Organisation (ILO). Secondly, as one of our resident maritime specialists, he is project managing new course creation, gathering and disseminating information to the course building department and working with course creators to present it in the right way.

Effective Learning Design is something that Ash is passionate about, believing that communicating in the right way is key to delivering targeted and relevant training. He understands that even the deck person already knows more than the regulatory requirements suggest, so it’s easy for them to disengage when repeating essential training. There has to be trust when it comes to training maritime professionals; if the terminology, tone or context isn’t right, they will spot it a mile off.

He added, “While lecturing is great for cadets at the start of their careers, maritime professionals benefit from a more scenario-based learning approach.” The facts in the training should be illustrated with real incidents from IMO’s Maritime Safety Committee reports (that seafarers rarely have time to read), to drive the learning home, open the dialogue and enable them to look at high-risk situations from a different perspective. As Ash said, “The best online training should feel like we are in a room talking. Leaving the learner to think about what they could have done differently in that situation.”

Seafarers face many challenges today, from coping with hostile acts to rapidly advancing technical change, innovation and increasing cognitive demands. It is a challenging time, which is reflected by the increasingly pressing shortage of seafarers willing to take on the role. Ash believes “We can solve many of these challenges by reintroducing the ‘human element’ and listening more to those at sea. There is, after all, untapped potential in nearly 1.9 million highly trained seafarers who understand the problems first-hand and work around the globe. More conversation means less fear of technology and what the future holds for them and their roles.”

“I would love to start a maritime training podcast, interviewing industry experts and seafarers to discuss solutions to the problems they see. I would also like to create a course about ‘The Future of Seafaring’, to set seafarers’ minds at rest and inform them about the industry and what it will look like in ten years.”

What are the lessons we can learn from those at sea and the softer skills that come with time and experience? Top of the list was the importance of trust. As Ash stresses, “You need respect for every member of the team. You can’t let things fester. Over time you become very good at conflict resolution. If there’s a fire, the galley person could be the one pulling you out. You want to have a good relationship and know that whoever it is, has got your back.”

Naval and seafaring training is deeply ingrained, and Ash himself agrees that this process-driven and rational approach to work has greatly benefited him on shore. An attention to detail, accountability, and transparent way of conducting business were essential for survival at sea, and are a valuable skill set on land.

These attributes have helped him in adopting new technologies and the associated safety risks for seafarers today whilst discussing what "Navigating the Future: Safety First!" means. Ash believes that technology should be integrated in a practical manner and that seafarers should be trained in ways that help simplify it. Immersive technology, including the use of AR, VR, and adaptive learning are not suitable for all training scenarios; there must be a specific purpose and clear learning objectives.

Ash references data from Intermanager, the international trade association for the ship and crew management sector, highlighting that since 1996, 310 people have lost their lives in enclosed spaces on ships—224 seafarers and 86 shore personnel in 197 separate accidents. In 2023 alone, there were 31 deaths. To address such risks, Ash suggested that crew could be trained using VR goggles to fly drones into enclosed spaces for inspections, potentially preventing these fatalities.

The Day of the Seafarer 2024 theme, "Navigating the Future: Safety First!" highlights the importance of addressing the evolving challenges and safety concerns in the maritime industry. The words from Ash drive home the critical role of quality training and effective communication in enhancing seafarer safety and well-being. As technology continues to advance, the controlled adoption and integration of immersive learning tools will be essential in preparing seafarers for the future. By listening to the voices of those at sea and leveraging their invaluable insights, we can create a safer and more resilient maritime community.

Mintra.com has over 190 online courses covering a wealth of maritime expertise. Learn more about the topics connected to issues raised in this blog here:

• Interpersonal Skills - Negotiation Training
• Maritime Mental Health Training
• Enclosed Space Entry (Maritime) Training
• Social Wellbeing (WeCare)
• Financial Wellbeing (WeCare)