STCW Manila Amendments

This is a guide for training providers, shipping companies and Maritime Administrations concerning the non-technical skills requirements of the STCW Manila amendments.

Major revisions to the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (the STCW Convention) and its associated Code were adopted at a Diplomatic Conference in Manila, the Philippines, on 21-25 June 2010.

The amendments, known as “The Manila amendments to the STCW Convention and Code”, entered into force on 1 January 2012, with full compliance by 1 January 2017.

The amendments aim to bring the Convention and Code up to date with recent developments and enable them to address issues anticipated to emerge in the foreseeable future.

Amongst the amendments adopted, there are a number of important changes to the Convention and Code. These changes include training in:

Resource Management and Leadership & Teamwork

Although the revised STCW focuses on training areas identified as being of significant importance for enhancing safety at sea, there may be confusion on how to interpret and translate the revised STCW requirements into national regulations. The issues discussed are:

• What is the difference between Resource Management training and Leadership & Teamwork training?
• How should this training be organised and structured to achieve the intended results?
• How can we assess the results of non-technical training?
• How do we integrate the non-technical training with technical training?

In a document produced by The Swedish Club Academy, we aim to provide answers to these questions.

We invite administrations, training providers and other concerned parties to read and take note of the contents of this document. We hope that the document will assist in understanding human factors and lead to successfully implementing human factors training in the maritime industry.

In February 2012, the MRM course was certified by the Maritime Department of the Swedish Transport Agency as meeting the non-technical skills requirements of the STCW Manila Amendments.