Cadets from vessels registered with the Isle of Man Ship Registry will be the first to trial the new programme, which will run alongside their three-year academic training and aims to reduce drop-out rates and improve mental well-being.
Liverpool-based Tapiit Live’s CEO Richard Turner a former seafarer and managing director at Shell Ship Management, said the course has created a real buzz in the industry and the company is looking at ways to extend the training for cadets nationwide. He said there is a growing understanding that seafarer welfare and mental health provision needs to adapt and improve, which has accelerated following the coronavirus outbreak that has placed seafarers under huge strain with as many as 300,000 unable to return home due to travel restrictions (see notes to editors).
Richard said the interactive cadet programme will be live-streamed to ships, colleges and homes with some modules delivered by a clinical psychologist to allow cadets to access training wherever they are in the world.
The course was developed after Tapiit Live identified that cadets require more well-being training throughout their cadetship to better prepare them for the real world of seafaring.
It will be launched close to the release date of a welfare app that Tapiit Live is developing for the Isle of Man Ship Registry, which will be made available to 11,000 seafarers sailing under the Isle of Man flag and will be the first of its kind ever produced for a ship registry.
Tapiit Live aims to make the programme live on the IOMSR welfare app so that cadets can benefit from live-streamed modules through their devices.
Content and delivery manager Lee Clarke, a former master mariner and a cadet manager, said Tapiit Live has a number of developments in the pipeline, including incorporating its service agreement with satcomms provider Inmarsat into the cadet programme to improve cadet training onboard.
Tapiit’s new deal with Inmarsat will enable live streaming for the first time to around 10,000 ships, including the 400 ships that sail under the Isle of Man Flag. The live streaming uses Inmarsat’s high-speed broadband service Fleet Xpress and is available 24-hours-a-day, through a worldwide dedicated on-demand service that will eliminate any fluctuations with the connection.
Lee said the cadet well-being programme involves 16 modules designed to deliver the life skills that the business has identified as lacking from academic courses. This will include managing finances, coping with living away from home, dealing with peer pressure, cultural awareness, understanding isolation onboard and managing mental health. There will also be modules that cover resilience training, coping with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and dealing with a harsh environment onboard a vessel – all vital skills particularly during the current crew-change crisis.
Clinical psychologist Dr Rachel Glynn-Williams, from Liverpool-based Seaways Psychology Services, has helped develop the courses with Lee.
He said: “We recognised that through the three-year cadet programme there were certain pinch points where well-being was missed because the UK system is focused on the academic side, which is true across the board and not just exclusive to maritime.
For a lot of youngsters, leaving home is difficult and then they have to deal with going to sea and being isolated from their families. A lot tend to have the image that they will be going onto cruise ships when in fact the reality can be that they end up on a bulk carrier in a part of the world they would consider unglamorous. At 21, a cadet could find themselves as an officer of the watch on a container ship so our module ‘Leap from cadet to officer’ helps them make that leap to being able to manage teams of people. The course is designed to give them coping mechanisms to deal with these issues and scenarios they find themselves in to prevent mental health issues or cadets dropping out of their training.”
The training programme trial will begin for cadets on Isle of Man Ship Registry vessels from November.
Cameron Mitchell, director of the Isle of Man Ship Registry, said they were delighted to be partnered with Tapiit in this initiative. The organisation announced in July that it would be launching the first ever seafarer welfare app designed by a ship registry, which it is producing with Tapiit, available for free to around 11,000 seafarers sailing on more than 400 vessels under the Isle of Man flag.
He said: “We fully support Tapiit Live’s efforts to develop a pioneering training programme tailored from first-hand experience and a real understanding of the skills needed for a successful transition from cadet to officer. The IOMSR welfare app has been designed around the thoughts and needs of all seafarers, with a focus on positively influencing life at sea. Tapiit Live’s cadet well-being programme is an integral part of that process and provides confidence and a sure footing that will hopefully lead to a rewarding career at sea.”
Tapiit’s announcement of a new cadet package follows the launch earlier this month of another new course ‘Mental Well-Being at Sea at Times of Uncertainty’. The one-hour live-stream course is designed to prevent and tackle poor seafarer mental health and can be delivered at sea, onshore or at home.