Seatrade publishes article about it's English language program for seafarers and office workers

This Seatrade online English program helps all employees to comply with the so called 'Seatrade Standard'. The article explains how the program works. Manning agents, a seafarer that enrolled in the program and several others involved in the maritime English program share their opinions and experiences. - Published 20 October, 2017 -

Dutch shipmanager

Seatrade Shipmanagement is a shipmanager of a diverse fleet of vessel types. The Dutch company has 70 vessels in full and 10 vessels in partial management. That includes including vessels of its 100% owned German shipmanagement company Triton, Seatrade Italy and Seatank Management. Simply Seatrade is a magazine published by Seatrade to inform it's employees, clients and stakeholders about news and developments in and around the company.

Online English program helps employees comply with Seatrade Standard

The cooperation between Seatrade and Spot On Learning started full scale in 2016, after some first pilot projects in 2015 in Kaliningrad, Russia. In 2016 two groups of professionals from Seatrade HQ Staff ashore and Management level went through the program and around 650 Seatrade seafarers from Russia, the Philippines and several other countries followed.

The online English program, developed bySpot On Learning in close cooperation with the Seatrade management and Seatrade crewing department, has proven to be an effective way to help all employees worldwide comply with the quality standards set by Seatrade, the so called Seatrade Standard.

Communicating effectively in English can be matter of life and death

Quote from the article:

Incidents and accidents happen, because of the lack of communication and misunderstandings while working with different nationalities and cultures on board and ashore. Therefore, English communication is of paramount importance for the company and the safety on board. Being able to communicate effectively in English can be a matter of life and death.

Crewing agents in Kaliningrad, Vladivostok and Manila involved

Manning agents in Russia and the Philippines have been involved in rolling out the online English program for all Seatrade seafarers worldwide. In the article Capt. Ferdinand CapalihanTraining Coordinator at Career Philippines Shipmanagement Inc., Manila and Grigory Dryuk, Financial Director of Fescontract International, Vladivostok share their opinions and experiences about Seatrade's choice to upgrade the level of English of all employees worldwide.

Seafarers positive about the program

The seafarers that enrolled in the program are overall very positive about the online video courses. Many even find them entertaining. But most important is that they are convinced that improving English communication and overcoming cultural differences is important to ensure safety and efficiency. Another quote taken from the full article:

Carlo Mikko Soleta, Able Seaman at Avior Marine Inc.:

The online English Program is very helpful to us since we learned a lot from the teacher and from the videos. We will be able to apply it once we work and meet other people, we can communicate and speak better English! The Cargohandling course is very beneficial and helpful especially to us seafarers, because it improves our skills and safety onboard.

Read the article in Simply Seatrade

You can read the article by clicking the 'downloads' link or the illustration below or you can read the full edition of Simply Seatrade Magazine 2017-1 online by going to the 'Simply Seatrade' section of the Seatrade website.