The total volume of ship newbuildings is at an all time high and still growing. This is also a challenge to DNV as it takes time to develop and educate our surveyor base and to ensure that the quality of our work is always up to our standards.
The total newbuilding order book (autumn 2007) accounts for more than 1,280 vessels, exceeding 52.5 million grt. The first prototype of the Maritime Accelerated Surveyor Training (MAST) programme has now been successfully completed. The objective of the MAST programme is to increase the efficiency of the initial training of DNV Maritime surveyors by reducing training time without jeopardising the quality of training with respect to both technical and personal skills. This is achieved by a detailed and supervised learning process, the use of additional learning methods and innovative thinking in general.
Shanghai-based Wei Dong Wang, a DNV senior surveyor and project manager and one of six tutors for the first MAST programme, told us of some of the experiences gained from the programme: “We had a group of 30 participants from eleven countries in the programme, with DNV experience varying from fresh out of university to some time spent as a surveyor. The programme’s main aim was to learn all about three core competence elements: materials and welding, structural strength and hull equipment.
“In my understanding, the benefits of MAST, in addition to the three core competence elements, are the solid accumulation of knowledge and skills and a comprehensive understanding of the DNV culture. Considerable attention is paid to the role of class in shipping, and particularly that of the surveyor in the overall context, as well as to behavioural principles in a unified and structured way.
“For the time being, we are running a ‘short version’ of the MAST programme for five new graduates over a period of ten weeks here in China. The experiences from this will be used as input for DNV Greater China as a best practices plan for enhanced training,” concludes Wang.
DNV’s Regional Manager for Greater China, Bjørn K. Haugland, underlines the importance of the MAST programme: “In order to cope with our growth in the responsible way our customers rightly expect from DNV, more efforts will have to be allocated to effective training. We have received positive feedback from not only our own employees but also the yards where our ‘students’ have been. Delivering top qualified teams of surveyors to the many projects we have in hand in Greater China remains one of our main priorities.”