Seafarers possess countless certificates in their bag. To reach master competency level, I have been to various maritime institutes almost every year of my career, for competency courses at 2nd mate, chief mate and master level, or for modular STCW courses, various value-added courses and even in-house company courses. With amendments in the STCW convention, these numbers grow exponentially. Logically, these certificates define us, our competence and our fitness for joining a ship. Many times ships have faced penalties or detentions if any of their crew do not possess the required certificates. My complete professional journey of 16 years in shipping can be portrayed by a bunch of these certificates. Sometimes I consider them my identity, my hard-earned assets.

 

With all of the time and money that can go into the acquisition of certificates, they can be jeapordized in an instant if, for example, an institute is charged for malpractices and all the seafarers who have completed courses there come under the scrutiny. Though most seafarers may be innocent. Their entire professional carrier is at stake now. This event has created chaos among the seafarer on the authenticity of the institutes and the certificates they carry. There is a sign of lacking in self-assurance with this traditional system of certification at the institutes. The certificates generation and issuance are still manual hard copy which does not guarantee it to be tamperproof. We have to look to technologies for solutions.