Carnival Corp’s Centre for Simulator Maritime Training (CSMART) Academy has been recognised as the world’s first Centre of Safety Excellence by DNV GL.
The award was presented by Paal Johansen, global cruise ship director DNV GL – Maritime, at a ceremony at the CSMART Academy in Almere, the Netherlands, near Amsterdam.
Accepting on behalf of the CSMART Academy were Vice Admiral Bill Burke (ret), chief maritime officer for Carnival Corp; David Christie, Carnival Corp’s senior vice president of maritime quality assurance and Capt Hans Hederström, CSMART Academy managing director.
Carnival Corp’s CSMART Academy is a maritime training, professional development and research facility forming part of the seven-acre Arison Maritime Centre.
Founded in 2009 CSMART Academy provides rigorous annual safety training for nearly 7,000 bridge and engineering officers responsible for the navigation and operation of the world’s largest fleet of cruise ships from the corporation’s nine cruise line brands – Carnival Cruise Line, Princess Cruises, Holland America Line, Seabourn, P&O Cruises (Australia), Costa Cruises, AIDA Cruises, P&O Cruises (UK) and Cunard.
“Carnival Corporation and its cruise line brands have made a strong commitment to safety, exemplified by its investments in training and personnel development in its CSMART Academy,” said Knut Ørbeck-Nilssen, CEO of DNV GL – Maritime. “Carnival Corporation’s organisational focus on continuous improvement throughout their officers’ careers, and the innovative application of training simulators, is a testament to their drive to go beyond compliance. We are pleased to present CSMART Academy with our Centre of Safety Excellence award. It is very well deserved.”
“We are honoured by this recognition of our relentless commitment to the safety and comfort of our guests as the top priority for all of Carnival Corporation’s cruise line brands,” said Hederström. “Our CSMART Academy faculty and staff include some of the world’s top maritime experts, and we are privileged to support the ongoing training of the bridge and engineering officers from each of our nine cruise line brands. It is all made possible by our corporation’s collective commitment to safety and significant investment in innovative simulator equipment, technology, instructional tools and curriculum.”
In 2015, DNV GL and CSMART developed an initiative to increase the standards for maritime training with a focus on four areas:
1) Certification of training courses.
2) Certification of bridge and engine simulators.
3) Certification of CSMART Academy management as a training provider.
4) Introduction of innovative concepts to improve maritime safety.
The first three categories were supported by DNV GL Seaskill with standards including learning programme (0008), simulator instructors (0025), training provider (0029) and simulator product certification (0033).
CSMART Academy’s core faculty of 47 instructors is complemented by more than two dozen trained line instructors who alternate working on board a cruise ship with instructing at the academy, creating a unique process for real-time information exchanges between instructors and officers at sea.
In addition, the Fleet Captain and Fleet Engineer programmes train 10 Masters and 10 Chief Engineers, who then spend two to three years travelling among ships in the Carnival Corp fleet, verifying that CSMART Academy training is practised and maximised at sea.
The academy currently offers 36 different training courses, well above the courses required by regulatory bodies. As part of the voluntary certification by DNV GL, constructive feedback was given towards improving the development of the training courses, such as defining measurable objectives and increasing transparency in course documentation.
It features four full-mission bridge simulators, four full-mission engine room simulators, eight smaller part-task bridge simulators and 36 part-task engine room simulators – all of which can recreate a variety of scenarios and sea conditions at 60 different ports around the world.
These simulators are used to train bridge and engineering officers, including simulations focused on engine room and engine control room operations, environmental systems and exhaust gas cleaning systems.
The simulators were certified against DNV GL standards, with the assessors praising the resemblance to ships’ operations and the high level of realism.
DNV GL found that the academy’s management system had well-defined processes, and clear and concise procedures to enhance consistency in training development, delivery and evaluation, resulting in the CSMART Academy and its faculty providing training to a very high standard.
An important component of the work of the academy’s faculty is pioneering the cruise industry’s first continuous development simulator-based appraisal programme.
Completing the week long course, as part of the company’s continuous professional development matrix, is a mandatory requirement for every maritime officer from each of Carnival Corp’s nine cruise line brands, exceeding regulatory requirements. The academy also hosts a comprehensive port study programme, bringing together bridge teams and local pilots to agree on a pilotage plan and assess the risk of entering and departing a port under challenging conditions.
Some of the CSMART Academy’s recent innovations in maritime safety include:
⦁ Pioneering the team- and role-based concept for bridge and engine room management in the cruise and shipping industries.
⦁ A new way to plan navigation in confined waters, designed to enable timely and unambiguous interventions between team members, as soon as deviations occur.
⦁ A new continuous development programme for bridge, engine and electrical officers, inspired by the aviation and nuclear power industries’ approach to recurrent training and validation of competencies.
⦁ Three new sophisticated engine room models, replicating new ships to the Carnival Corp fleet, developed together with Transas. The virtual reality application reproduces a 150 m long engine room and its systems.
⦁ integration of actual 11,000- and 690-volt switchboard equipment with virtual equipment, simulating the electrical distribution on board vessels that meet the IMO’s Safe Return to Port regulation. These simulators are used to deliver high voltage management training, diesel-electrical propulsion and advanced electrical systems courses.
⦁ Full-mission simulators are incorporated to enhance training for environmental officers, and part-task simulators are used for training on exhaust gas cleaning systems, whose capability to cleanse exhaust gas fumes for clean air emissions is a critical part of the corporation’s commitment to sustainability and environmental leadership.
⦁ Incorporation of training for liquefied natural gas (LNG), a new fuel technology being pioneered in the cruise industry by Carnival Corp and its brands. Several of the company’s cruise lines have LNG-fuelled cruise ships scheduled to begin operation in coming years, starting with the first fully LNG-powered ship later this year.
