The gaps in today’s training environment

As shipping digitalises and decarbonises, training is failing to keep pace.

For all the talk of transformation, maritime training is falling behind. While simulators, gamified courses, and online academies multiply, the fundamentals remain out of sync with modern shipping. Across the industry, executives see an urgent need to modernise not only what seafarers learn, but how — and who delivers it.

“The biggest gap is that training methods are not modernised fast enough,” says Simon Frank of NSB Crewing. Pradeep Chawla from MarinePALS points to chronic underinvestment: “Most companies spend less than 1% of operating costs on training — less than a quarter of what other high-risk industries spend.”

Teaching, he adds, “is the lowest-paid shore job in the industry. Smart young people will not take it up as a career.”

Digital divide

Many leading shipmanagers polled for this magazine agree that the biggest gap lies in digital competence, followed by new fuel expertise. “We need seafarers who can handle both a sextant and a screen,” Fleet Management’s CEO Captain Rajalingam Subramaniam tells Splash.

Robert Gaina of Ardmore Shipping and Marlon Roño of Magsaysay both highlight the widening gap between training content and the skills needed for decarbonisation. “Crew must be properly trained and confident in the safe handling of low-carbon fuels,” says Gaina.

Roño adds that training “has not kept pace with automation, digitalisation, and new shipboard systems.” He calls for more simulation-based and scenario-driven learning.

Anglo-Eastern’s Aalok Sharma tells Splash that “significant gaps remain — not only in digital skills and human factors but in the relevance and delivery of training content.”

“Seafarers want training grounded in reality — hands-on, practical, and scenario-based,” argues Peter Rouch, who heads up the Mission to Seafarers.

Soft skills, hard lessons

Carl Martin Faannessen from Manila-based Noatun Maritime points to “cross-cultural leadership” as the industry’s blind spot. “Soft skills are the hard stuff,” he says — a view shared by Karin Orsel of MF Shipping, who lists “teamwork, communication, and decision-making” among the most neglected areas.

MTM’s Captain Rajiv Singhal calls this the human element: empathy under stress, decisiveness under pressure. “These qualities form the invisible backbone of safe operations,” he says.

Certification and credibility

For Manpreet Gandhi at Ishima, fraudulent certification remains a persistent threat. “Quality across institutions is inconsistent,” he warns. “We need stricter oversight, greater transparency, and uniform global standards to ensure genuine competence.”

Vinay Gupta from Singapore’s Union Marine Management Services agrees that too many training institutions “operate in isolation from real-world shipping, run by people who see teaching as a retirement plan rather than a responsibility.”

Learning fatigue

Chirag Bhari from the shipping charity ISWAN introduces another modern problem: training fatigue. Seafarers are bombarded with e-learning but deprived of time and context to absorb it. “As technology advances, there must be a balance between human-centred approaches and technical skill development,” he says.

Simona Toma of Columbia points to the same challenge. “Many pause professional development during leave, creating knowledge gaps once back onboard,” she notes. “Continuous learning must be part of the culture, not an occasional exercise.”

The future of training, then, is not just about technology. It is about culture, competence, and commitment — ensuring seafarers are equipped not just to comply, but to lead.

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