Bridging the Learning Gaps
By Capt. Ajay Achuthan
Apart from mastery in mainstream maritime concepts, it is essential for a Master and Chief Engineer and Maritime Trainers to have a good degree of management competency. Having clarity of purpose, the power to visualize, and having a good grasp of the meaning and definition of management itself are very important. As one develops primary and secondary management ability, one also learns to discern between efficiency and effectiveness to ones advantage in various areas of ones day to day chores.
A lot of time is spent in Management classes with technical details. Thus an ASM of Management class for engineers gets converted to a technical class. This I suppose happen unwittingly as the people drawing out the syllabus or the teachers (transferors) have not been through a formal management program themselves. Even when we go through a management program the Professors/ Teachers there presume that at a senior level we really do not have to go into the basics of management. This according to me is a major problem area – we seem to give too little importance to the basics.
On 5th September 2009, Synergistic Solutions conducted a workshop in honor of our teachers at Grand Hyatt, Mumbai. Three of our best faculty volunteered to be audited during the program. Three months of interaction and consultation with these experts resulted in us producing a standardized checklist for auditing. During the workshop, the teachers amply demonstrated total quality learning with students in a classroom setting (Simulator Class, Team Work Class and accident-near miss Concept Clarification Class).
When we generally talk about learning, we limit ourselves to the aspect of the person understanding the subject or carrying out a task newly exposed to. Very rarely we define learning as a reflection of whether the person can transfer the specific learning or competency. Our workshop held at Grand Hyatt to a great extent culminated in the participants grasping the concepts, and carrying out the tasks newly exposed to. A few of the participants also held on the opportunity to transfer the learning.
It was our attempt to bridge the gap between
Training ≠ Learning ≠ Performing≠ Competence
As a compliance culture country, many amongst us will do yoga only if it is compulsory. The Maritime community has resolved to bring the best practice of Auditing Learning systems (ALS) through a regulation, code and guideline. Whether it will be mandatory or no is for the maritime community to decide. We have declared 4th September as the release date for the regulation and code and if possible the guidelines for an effective Learning Management System.
Like the ISM brought about a DPA the ILM code will bring about the Chief Learning Officer (CLO) or Designated Learning Person (DLP). The Seminar has thus been aptly named as the DPA/CLO Seminar
Capt. Ajay Achuthan is the founder Principal of Massa Maritime Academy. Besides various publications in international and national forum, he is the author of “If the Learner has not learnt, the teacher has not taught. Starting School of Synergic Studies in 1997, he transferred the concepts to Synergistic Solutions in 2000. It was sustained as a service to the maritime fraternity its mission is to empower and enable people and organizations to reach the zenith of their self potential, living their life synergizing with nature. His passion to empower seafarers he does by himself investing in various learning experiences through Human and Spiritual Transformational programs. He believes transformation of India can be brought about by transformation of Teachers and women in India. He is presently making himself worthy of being an instrument to bring forth higher contributions to the Maritime society and to the whole world of “transference and giving”