The Directorate General of Shipping (DGS) has approved 165 Maritime Training Institutes in India. The employment of seafarers on Indian or Foreign Ships depends on their training, assessment and certification in accordance with the International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW Convention) of International Maritime Organization (IMO) for the seafarers, to which India is a signatory.

The DGS has also issued list of approved maritime training courses. All these courses are to be in line with the Model Course issued by the IMO and the STCW Convention, 2010. Further, Training, Examination and Assessment Programme (TEAP) manual has been issued by the DGS providing necessary guidelines and details of the training courses, sea going services and examination. Besides these, there is a common course for faculties of the Maritime Training Institutes (MTIs), namely Vertical Integration Course for Trainers.

E-learning: DGS has also introduced E-learning and provides e-learning material at no cost to the candidates, which would help in overall improvement in quality of the seafarers, ensuring their employability.

Physical Classes: The approved Institutes register the qualified students for their courses as per STCW Convention requirements. After completion of the course, students are permitted for online common Exit examination.

Online Exit exams for seafarers and online results: This common exit exam has been introduced to maintain uniform standards across India. Question Banks for the online examination are prepared by a set of experts and are vetted by another set of experts. Instant online results are shown to avoid any kind of discrepancy. E-Proctoring mechanism has been incorporated in the software.

E-Certificate: The DGS has introduced digitally signed e-certificate to a candidate who successfully completes the three-tier system of learning i.e. e-learning, class room learning, and online exit examination. The MTIs require that the Principal and the Course In-charge electronically affix their signatures on e-certificates generated by the e-Governance system. The digitally generated e-certificates can be accessed by eligible candidates from DGS website. Similarly, on-line verification of authenticity of these e-certificates can be done from DGS website by various authorities, such as Shipping Companies, Port State etc.

• The DGS has introduced Comprehensive Inspection Programme (CIP) which is mandatory for all approved MTIs. The main objective of CIP is to assess, ensure and enhance the quality of training being imparted to the trainees by the MTIs. Each MTI has to undergo annual CIP inspection by Recognized Organizations (ROs), which are third parties and authorized by the DGS.
• The DGS also directs Marine Mercantile Departments to carry out comprehensive and surprise inspections of the MTIs to keep a check in the quality of training and education.

 Efforts have been made to reduce violations in the online Exit Exam and these are as follows:

1. The candidates are briefed about the system by the concerned MTIs before they appear for the online Exit examination,
2. E-proctoring has been strengthened and examination can be taken only from the premises of approved MTIs on computer machines registered in the Exit examination facility,
3. Strict action has been taken on instances of misconduct and manipulation of exit exam system. The INDOS numbers of those candidates who were found to be involved in the Exit exam misconduct were blocked for a period of six months thereby restricting them to join the ship,
4. The DGS has allowed all the MTIs to conduct courses from the approved premises in physical mode since 01/04/2022.

This information was given by the Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Waterways, Shri Sarbananda Sonowal in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

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MJPS/NSK

(Release ID: 1941376)