Your Basket

Basket is empty

Mintra’s Insights into the Future of Maritime

During Mintra’s participation at Posidonia 2024, Safety4Sea conducted interviews with key maritime stakeholders discussing current industry themes. Emmanolia Kolias, Channel Director was interviewed as part of this series, watch the full interview below.

Watch the SAFETY4SEA Interview here

Ensuring Quality Training for New Generations

Q: How does your company stay abreast of evolving business needs and technological advancements in the maritime sector?

A: We are an educational technology company; so it is very important for us to make sure we are looking at all the trends, especially in the learning space. We have a new generation of seafarers that are coming, and we need to ensure that there is quality training. One thing that we do as a company, we invest heavily in technology, we ensure that we are up to date with all the various regulations. This way we are able to provide the companies the education that they need.

Preparing for a Sustainable Future

Q: As we move forward, how do you feel the challenges of digitisation and decarbonisation will impact the maritime industry? In your view, has the industry been successful in embracing and upskilling maritime professionals? How concerning is a shortage of qualified crew members where ship operators need to shed their attention?

A: You bring up a very good question, because we have digitalisation, we have decarbonisation, we have changing regulations and where we find ourselves, especially as a leaning company, the industry is slow to move wherever these changes exist. DNV actually did a survey, and they linked the survey to a question on how prepared seafarers are for alternative fuels, and 87% of them said that they need additional training on it. Therefore, it’s very important as an industry to know which regulations are coming out so that the training is available. When it comes to digitalisation, technology moves quickly. So, there is going to be a lot more advances systems that are going to be onboard and you will have to upskill your crew to be able to deal with these changes.

Building an Inclusive Future

Q: Are you satisfied with the progress made towards Diversity, Inclusion, and Equity (DEI) so far? What initiatives related to DEI would you like to see in the workplace both onboard and ashore?

A: This is a topic that is really close to me; I am a board member of WISTA Cyprus. We always think of ways in which we can achieve an inclusive future. I think the industry has taken strides. Are we there

yet? Absolutely not. What I would like to see is more companies collaborating together with maritime academies; this way we can help foster together a partnership and be more inclusive from the start so we can support and mentor these females coming in. It’s not just about women’s inclusivity, it’s about full inclusivity. One thing that I can tell you that our company did, we have partnered with Cyprus Maritime Academy. Where we are offering a scholarship to a female cadet, we just chose one and we are going to be there from the start of her career all the way to see her grow.