It is actually astounding that after all these years of STCW and the IMO Model Courses referring to it, very few lecturers and instructors at Maritime training institutions have ever heard of “Outcome-Based Education” (OBE).

They are blissfully unaware about what it is, let alone that this is the preferred, prescribed method of instruction of the IMO. In short, we at training institutions around the world are supposed to run ALL our courses in OBE format. So why aren’t we?

Most lecturers that I spoke to have simply never heard of it. They are used to the chalk-and-talk ways in which they were trained. When I point out the references in the IMO model courses and STCW, they are usually sheepishly shocked to admit that they have never noticed it.

At MTC-Hamburg (Germany) we have been at the forefront of student orientated and outcome-based education and assessments ever since we started in 2009. It forms part of our “Train the Trainer” courses and every prospective new instructor learns and experiences OBE.

Admittedly it has always been a bit of a challenge to incorporate OBE in advanced simulation training for mariners, because in OBE one should integrate all aspects of the training (and assessments) into a single student oriented, outcome-based, simulated environment and do it so as to achieve the maximum training benefit for the student.

Yet with our highly skilled and experienced trainers we have been able to meet these challenges time and time again and we were able to hone and perfect our training methods over the years to the point where we can now train others in our methods. This has made our courses arguably the best in Europe, if not the world.

Wayne Möller is Marine Engineer, Senior Lecturer and simulator instructor at Marine Training Center Hamburg GmbH