The crew management section of the archived DeltaMeco blog follows regulation, training standards and safety. This summary collects the main stories in plain language.
EMSA audits of Philippine training (2015)
The Philippines supplies the largest share of the world’s seafarers, with around 400,000 citizens working at sea, so its training institutions matter to the whole industry. The European Maritime Safety Agency, EMSA, voiced concerns in 2012 and a series of audits followed, the latest in October 2013. They test whether training is good enough to justify confidence in certificates issued under the STCW convention.
Bureau Veritas carried out the most recent audit, the third major one in the country, under the supervision of MARINA, the Philippine maritime authority. Legislation the previous year had made MARINA solely responsible for seafarer education and STCW matters, which was expected to reduce bureaucracy and the time seafarers spent travelling between agencies. Following the audits, the number of recognised institutions fell from 93 to between 23 and 26, depending on certification level, as of 23 February 2015.
The article’s author welcomed the audits for four reasons: safety comes first, a negative image of Philippine training harms the whole industry, the audit shows which schools are good, and scrutiny raises standards. The author also acknowledged the risk that EMSA could withdraw recognition of Philippine certificates and asked whether European shipping could cope without Filipino crew. That is an opinion from the archive.
Accreditation (2011)
In December 2011 the agency said that, after recognition by the Philippine overseas employment authority, its Manila operation had earned DNV certification under the Maritime Labour Convention 2006 for private recruitment and placement. An earlier note celebrated passing a Lloyd’s Register Quality Assurance audit to the ISO 9001:2008 standard.
Piracy and policy
- British armed guards. A report from the BBC said the UK prime minister had announced that British-flagged ships would be able to carry armed guards, with the home secretary licensing them. Forty-nine of the world’s 53 hijackings the previous year took place off Somalia.
- Awareness. In April 2011 the blog supported a radio programme and the Save Our Seafarers campaign.
Fatigue
A European Commission-funded research project called Horizon, worth EUR 3.78 million, studied how fatigue affects the decision-making of watchkeeping officers, reflecting rising concern about incidents at sea.
Why the audits and certificates matter
STCW certificates are what allow seafarers to work legally on foreign-flagged ships, so doubts about the system behind them affect hiring across the industry. Third-party audits, classification society certificates and quality management standards such as ISO 9001 give shipowners evidence that a recruitment agency follows documented processes. The MLC 2006 certification noted above covers recruitment and placement, which is one of the areas in which seafarers have been exposed to abuse in the past.
Reading the list
The section is a mixture of the agency’s own announcements and news it chose to repost. When an item credits another outlet, such as the BBC, the facts belong to that outlet, and the agency’s comments are its own. Dates in the archive are the posting dates, not always the date of the underlying event.
Piracy in context
The archived items on piracy come from the period around 2011, when attacks off Somalia were a major concern. They reflect how closely crewing agencies followed legal and public debate about protecting crews. The campaign and policy changes mentioned here are historical and should be read in that setting.
See also the main blog page and the crew administration overview.