Mr. Andreas Togantzis, Marine Engineer and Head of MAN PrimeServe Academy in Piraeus, talks about MAN Diesel & Turbo’s training initiative which aims to provide technology knowledge to its customers operating company’s engines, referring in detail to local activities. He highlights that training plays critical role to industry and requires a commitment by all stakeholders related to the training of seagoing personnel or their corresponding technical staff in the office.
Life at sea has changed a lot since the introduction and the rigorous implementation of the ISM Code in the late 90s. It was with this new piece of IMO legislation that training for the seafarers was directly connected to their safety, hence training needs were required to be identified and dealt with particularly those training data directly contributing to the reduction of risks and improve safety onboard.
The development of new technologies in the marine field and particularly on the development of the propulsive two stroke engines made the introduction of training in the daily routine of the shipping industry a compulsory element and hence the need of competent and technically able centers for providing the required by the marine industry trainings started to appear all over.
MAN PrimeServ are proud that they were among the limited few at the beginning who responded seriously to this need and created a number of MAN PrimeServ Academies around the world (today 13 such academies operate worldwide and the Piraeus Academy numbers proudly among them since the summer of 2013) who are destined to provide responsible and technically correct training to our customers operating our engines.
However the development of the marine industry and the preparation of a new generation of seafarers to take the profession further into the 21st century – for our country Greece this is the most important issue directly related to a sustainable growth over the crucial next 10-15 years – requires a commitment by all the ‘players” related to the training of seagoing personnel or their corresponding technical staff in the office , that their contribution (meaning , the units who provide training) in training is not limited to their customers , as it is naturally intended , but is equally and without limitation provided also to other sectors of the marine industry in the community and in particular the state run Marine Academies .
MAN PrimeServ Academy Piraeus, contributing to the 50 years anniversary of the MAN official presence in Greece , proudly announces their contribution and participation in improving the program and elements of training of all the four Marine Academies for Engineers (in Michaniona, Aspropyrgos, Chania and Chios) in collaboration with the responsible authority from the Ministry of Merchant Marine over the past year and intends to continue so in the years to come.
By Andreas V. Togantzis
Marine Engineer, BSc. MSc., Head of Academy, Head of Technical Department, MAN PrimeServ Academy Piraeus
The views presented hereabove are only those of the author and not necessarily those of SAFETY4SEA and are for information sharing and discussion purposes only.
