Introduction to the Maritime Training Package

The Maritime Training Package provides significant flexibility to Registered Training Organisations, enterprises and individuals in packaging units together which lead to a qualification, while still ensuring close alignment with the regulatory requirements of National, State and Territory marine authorities.

It also accommodates the multiple job roles, enterprise requirements and changing technological nature of the industry. It is expected, however, when users of this Training Package select a combination of units for a qualification, that the units when packaged together form a
coherent set that fulfil clearly defined occupation requirements.

Importantly, when taking advantage of the flexible packaging arrangements available within the qualifications framework, individuals, enterprises and/or Registered Training Organisations must responsively package units together to still meet legislative requirements and industry codes of practice relevant to the maritime occupations concerned.

In packaging units together to form a training program, users should be conscious of the requirements set out in the Assessment Guidelines in the Maritime Training Package (contained elsewhere in this volume), the Australian Recognition Framework and the regulations and certification requirements of the various State, Territory and national marine authorities.

In this version of the Maritime Training Package, the system of qualifications has been reorganised to enable clear identification of qualifications that are directly aligned with the educational requirements specified by marine authorities for regulated occupations within both:

• ‘coastal operations’ falling within the regulatory jurisdiction of State and Territory marine authorities and described and defined in Part D of the National Standard for Commercial Vessels (NSCV)
• ‘ocean-going operations’ falling within the regulatory jurisdiction of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) and described and defined in Marine Orders under the Australian Navigation Act 1912.

At the same time, the existing flexibility of the Maritime Training Package has been preserved through the provision of a separate set of qualifications which allow flexible packaging of qualifications beyond basic mandatory safety requirements to fulfil the diverse competency requirements of occupations in ancillary and support areas that are associated with maritime operations.

Relationship of Revised Maritime Training Package TDM07 to the Previous Version TDM01

There are now four volumes in the Maritime Training Package – a general introduction and three volumes organising qualifications by ‘coastal operations’, ‘ocean-going operations’ and ‘general maritime qualifications not specifically aligned with regulated occupations’. The previous version of the Maritime Training Package (TDM01) was organised primarily by ‘Deck Officer qualifications’ and ‘Engineering qualifications’. Information gathered in the course of the review of the previous version indicated that the Training Package would be more user-friendly and easier to use if it were reorganised into four volumes.

A number of other changes were identified and made in the course of the review including:

• Adjustment of qualifications structure:
• realigning Engineer Class 3 from Certificate IV to Diploma given the management functions and the complexity of duties and responsibilities involved
• realigning Engineer Class 2 from Diploma to Advanced Diploma given the management functions and the complexity of duties and responsibilities involved
• introducing a new qualification at Certificate I for ‘Shore-based Linespersons’
• introducing a stream of qualifications with flexible packaging rules
• changing titles of qualifications aligned to regulated maritime occupations to include terminology that clearly links them to the regulated occupations concerned
• Systematic review of various competency themes across the different qualifications, including:
• command navigation
• obtaining, interpreting and applying weather information
• using navigational aids
• maintenance of vessel and equipment
• checking of stability and seaworthiness of vessel
• management of vessel operations and personnel
• Linking the contents of relevant units more closely to regulatory requirements (e.g. as described in Marine Orders and the National Standard for Commercial Vessels)
• Rationalising and simplifying pre-sea safety units
• Adjustments to the Training Package to ensure its consistency with government equity requirements
• Addition of units to cover vessels with steam propulsion plant
• Splitting of marine engineering units covering operation and maintenance of both electrical and electronic control systems into two sets of units separately covering electrical systems and electronic control systems
• Inclusion of optional units dealing with vessel and port security
• Inclusion of suitable references to regulatory requirements concerning marine pest risks, solutions and responsibilities
• Inclusion of a unit covering entry into confined or enclosed spaces on vessels
• Reviewing all units to confirm that relevant Employability Skills are explicitly incorporated and making appropriate adjustments where necessary
• Bringing all units into the new agreed unit structure and format.