[Exclusive] The NSAP Program at PMI

By Dennis H. Murphy

There are big changes on the maritime horizon. Yes there are, and they are going to affect every mariner in the U.S. Some of these changes will be driven by international organizations like the IMO. Some are coming from the USCG. And perhaps more importantly, the insurance companies and also plain old business pressure are driving some of these changes.

    One of them deals with evaluating the deck officers in your company. Do they know what they are doing out there? Or could a little “tune-up” benefit your entire operation? Given the cost of even a minor incident, it might benefit everyone to be evaluated from time to time.

    What has come on the maritime scene recently is a first-class way of determining if your deck officers could use a bit of additional training. The program is called NSAP® (Navigation Skills Assessment Program®). To help fill in the information on this NSAP concept, I asked for some input from Captain Bill Anderson, Director of the Pacific Maritime Institute in Seattle, Washington. PMI is now part of MITAGS, the Maritime Institute of Technology & Graduate Studies, in Baltimore. Both schools have multimillion-dollar, full-bridge ship and tug simulators that are at the heart of NSAP.

    Recently Captain Anderson had a short break in his busy day, which gave me a chance to sit down with him and obtain some information on this program. He started out by telling me that NSAP came about due to business pressure to increase the safety of our maritime fleets working in the field.

Real-Life Simulations

    The thought was that there must be a way to get a standardized “snapshot look” at how a mariner will perform in (almost) real-life situations. These businesses wanted a consistent means for the measurement of human performance. So in 2006 the simulation development team at PMI went to work setting up some standardized programs that would have a look at a mariner’s knowledge and practice of the Rules of the Road, situational awareness, use of bridge equipment and watchkeeping, navigation, BRM, radio use, and general operation of a vessel.

    As a guideline in developing NSAP, the simulation development team used the minimum standards of competence outlined in SCW Table A-II/1 and A-II/3. The team was also tasked to make the core program flexible enough that it could be tailored to the particular needs and objectives of different vessel company owners.

    At the writing of this article, there are many well-known US and international companies that have sent their entire roster of deck officers through this program. To name a few: Shell LNG, Crowley, and 14 other companies. Plus there are five different pilot associations that also use NSAP for continuing education and also for pilot candidate selection. Most of these officers have gone through NSAP in the past two years, at both the PMI and MITAGS locations. And every single one of these deck officers has taken away a little something to help make them just a bit safer out in the field. 

    I got to chatting with Captain Anderson, and the question came up as to: “If this is such a great learning tool, why not expand it to other schools that also have full-bridge ship simulators.” His response was: “We have!”

    Captain Anderson added: “At this time we have four active NSAP sites and two additional sites pending. The active sites are here at PMI in Seattle where the NSAP program was developed, at MITAGS in Baltimore (our parent company), the AJ Center for Excellence in Manila (PI), and the South Shields Marine School in Newcastle (UK). The two pending sites are in Singapore and India.”

     I asked him if these other licensed schools run the same or a different NSAP from the one here in the U.S. He said: “All of the International Training Centers (ITCs) throughout the world go through a rigorous training and licensing process that is followed up by regular audits to ensure maintenance of the highest level of quality. By developing a scripted and objective standardized assessment, NSAP ensures consistency of methodology and the ability to quantify the results for industry trending and analysis.”

(Author’s note: This means the program is EXACTLY the same for each of the officers for any given company’s parameters. In the program you get the same place and same challenges and the same opportunity for learning for each participant. And then you can see how your officers stand up to one another.) 

I asked Captain Anderson if, since NSAP is such a great tool to “tune up” a company’s bridge officers, it would be something that an independent mariner might want to take? His response was that companies, rather than individuals, have contracted most of the NSAP programs that have been run up to this time. But there have been some “private” sessions run mostly for individual marine pilot applicants to practice for their test.

“General Admission” NSAPs

As for the future of “general admission” NSAPs, it is on the books to start “sometime.” “But we need to service all of our commercial customers first,” Anderson says. So why would an independent mariner want to get into an NSAP anyway? That’s an easy one, and the answer has two parts.

•    First, EVERY officer can be “better” at what they do. NSAP gives you a non-judgmental look at how you really do things under a little pressure. This is accomplished after the simulation run with questions during the debriefing like “So why did you do that, at that particular time?” Or “So why DIDN’T you do something at that time?” The “debrief” after your run in the simulator is an opportunity for the give-and-take of ideas and observations. Everyone learns from this.

•    And second, the NSAP concept is rapidly becoming the “state of the art” in the marine industry. If you are looking for a job (or might be looking for one in the future), many of the large national companies REQUIRE you to take an NSAP as part of your job interview. If you have one of these NSAPs under your belt, you are more attractive to the employer. And many more companies are already lining up to have the same requirement for employment.

OK, by this time I was sold on the idea of NSAP. It finds where deck officers might need a little “tune up” or additional training. Many shipping companies are mandating NSAP to get their contracts. It is also a fantastic learning tool for every mariner from the “newbie” to the “old salt.” 

    So I asked Captain Anderson how a vessel company can get involved with this NSAP program? He said that if a company wants a demonstration, all it needs to do is give a call to any of the facilities that offer NSAP and make an appointment. He said they are always interested in new companies getting involved with the program.

What if there is an institute or school out there that would like to be considered for one of these “satellite schools.” I know they would need a full-bridge ship simulator, but besides that how do they go about licensing NSAP to use at their facility?

    Captain Anderson said the answer to that question was a simple one: “You need to contact our Business Development Director, Gregg Trunnell, at [email protected] or give him a call at (206) 719-2801 (U.S.). Gregg would love to give you all the information you might need. We are always looking for good new locations for this program.”

What the Future Holds

To wrap things up (as Captain Anderson is a busy guy), I asked what we might expect to see with this type of program in the future. Say in five or 10 years? Captain Anderson said: “We are looking to have more International Training Centers around the world and also a larger portfolio of different NSAPs. We plan on NSAPs targeted at specific areas of the industry such as Rivers, Oceans, Work Boat, DP, New Hire and Pilot Candidates, to name a few.”

    So there you have it. We have just had a little look into the future of the maritime industry. I can foresee in the not-to-distant future that NSAP (or a program like it) will be a requirement for most mariners to get a job with the major maritime companies. And at this time it is not a requirement to renew your license with the USCG, but I have heard some scuttlebutt about “future possibilities.” Only time will tell on that one! – MarEx 

Captain Dennis Murphy is an Instructor at the Pacific Maritime Institute in Seattle, Washington.