2020 has been a challenging year for many of us. And whilst we have been able to keep operating throughout the majority of the year, we have made a number of changes to our training courses and the way they are delivered.

For example, for practical vessel training, we have increased the number of vessels on the water. In other areas, we have increased the number of practical training and assessment days, to ensure social distancing is maintained by reducing the number of participants in practical training environments.

For the Elements of Shipboard Safety (ESS), we have adopted the use of ‘pull dummies’ and increased PPE in these sessions. We have also split the course into two groups, which rotates between one day of firefighting and one day of sea survival training.

These changes have meant that we have enforced social distancing requirements, and as an added bonus, students have had more contact time with their trainers.

SMT has continued to assess the changing situation and adapted training courses to address any Government regulations. We are looking forward to 2021 and the possibility of a ‘return to normal’ conditions in our training courses.