An accolade of good practice in training provision

The Merchant Navy Training Board (MNTB) is pleased to announce its first UK ‘Course Recognition’ award, which has been given to West Nautical Ltd.

West Nautical Ltd, is a yacht management company that is providing a Yacht Captain’s Command and Control Simulator course to its yacht captains.

The new service being offered by the MNTB is an industry benchmark for high quality training provision.  Our Course Recognition Service is the result of training companies seeking to demonstrate that their training provision has a valuable industry kitemark that sets it apart from other training companies.  It will also be of value to companies and individuals seeking high quality training to support a decision as to which training provider, from a range of competing providers, they may wish to use.

Our service is based around our good practice criteria for training provision.  The criteria require courses to show that they meet an identified need, have been effectively constructed and demonstrate exemplary standards in delivery, management and quality assurance, and must be met to the satisfaction of the MNTB before recognition can be granted.   All too often companies and individuals buy training or pay for a training course without being fully aware of the merits of one company over another, other than maybe price and the availability of the training.  The training company reputation and word of mouth will often be sufficient to give assurance that the course is worth the cost and will provide what is required and expected.  However, this is not always  the case, and an evaluation and kitemark, by a respected and well known national industry body, gives an independent endorsement of the company’s expertise in providing the training being sought and purchased.

 Following a trial of the Course Recognition Service during its inception, the MNTB has also awarded recognition internationally to Philcamsat, in Manila, a registered seafarer training and assessment centre, for its Human Element Leadership course.  Philcamsat has been involved with the MNTB for several years through the Stena Association of Maritime Institutions (STAMI).  The company was keen to show that it operates to high quality training standards and felt that the MNTB Course Recognition Service was the best way that is could do that.  We are now looking to make the service more readily available in the UK and West Nautical Ltd is the first of a number of companies that are going through the recognition process with us.  Recognition enables the company to use the ‘MNTB recognised course’ logo on its literature and website and will be included on the MNTB website pages of recognised training courses.