Background
With workforce resilience and skill shortfalls an ongoing concern of business leaders, our contemporary approach is designed to offer the level of flexibility necessary to ensure knowledge, skills and behaviours are at the right level.
Optimising the continued advance in technological capabilities, Kilo have been working with our client base to establish a more agile and business-aligned method of skill development and practical evaluation, that provides a Carbon Neutral solution to Maritime Training.
Establishing the Need
The essence of any solution that we propose to our clients is that it is entirely appropriate to the need. Rapidly assimilating the ‘Essential Task List’, we ensure that they form the principal training objectives. Aligning these with Role competencies, the outcomes for the training and its subsequent evaluation are then fully aligned with the business need.
Underpinning Knowledge
Responding to the evolving expectations of today’s audiences, our focus is very much on addressing the defined training objectives via a combination of resources, that support preparation and reinforcement of knowledge, and micro-courses that are accessible at the point of need.
Designed and developed with User Interaction and Experience at the fore of our considerations, we aim to make the digital content engaging, informative, measurable, and consistent with business needs.
All of which leads to the effective transfer of knowledge that can be tracked and supported, where necessary.
Application of Knowledge
Theoretical understanding, of course, is only the half of it. The need to validate the practical application of theory, in Maritime, is vital.
Capitalising on the accelerated advancement/evolution of both software and hardware with Virtual Reality technology, we are using our product VASCO to invite geographically dispersed individuals into the virtual domain, where mentoring, coaching and evaluation can all be conducted very effectively.
With clear objectives for every session defined and briefed, the users are then assigned roles and responsibilities and then empowered to manoeuvre the vessel in a safe, secure, and compliant manner.
Overseen by specialist instructors, evaluation of Team and Individual performance is objectively conducted aligned to the requisite competence standard that had been pre-defined.
Measurement
Combining the data received from the Learning Management System, based on the individual’s theoretically understanding, with the competency-based evaluation that has been captured via observations in the Virtual Domain, our client base is now able to receive very accurate assessments of their individual’s all-round training performance status.
This is also extended to Team performance, where knowledge, teamwork, communications, leadership, decision making, and situational awareness can all be effectively evaluated.
Scalability
The ability to deliver Contemporary Workforce Development, entirely within the digital domain, provides amazing levels of flexibility, aligning delivery sensitive to time zones, people availability, budget and operational tempos etc.
Harmonising this level of delivery with people’s lives is a key benefit, and our satisfaction feedback is consistently indicating that this level of workforce engagement is compatible with individual expectations within the current era.
Next Steps
Contemporary Workforce Development for ColRegs and BRM is now here and will soon be followed by Engine Control Rooms and ERM solutions.
It need not rest there, the opportunity to take this approach into all areas of Maritime Workforce Development is very exciting and is limited only by the requirement, confident that Virtual Reality technology is only getting better.
If the Maritime Sector is to appeal to the next generation, alongside servicing the current workforce, alternative methods to traditional approaches need to be embraced if we are to ensure our ships are continually operated by competent, compliant and confident seafarers.
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