Maritime Simulation Institute to Provide Professional Maritime Training to NOAA Officers; Instruction to Include Critical Simulator Experience in Shiphandling at Institute Headquarters.
The Maritime Simulation Institute was recently selected to provide professional maritime training to National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Corps Officers. In the NOAA Basic Officer Training Class, professional maritime instructors from the Maritime Simulation Institute will train the initial accession NOAA Corps Officers in the nautical sciences including basic safety training, seamanship, electronic navigation, ship stability, Rules of the Road, and shiphandling.
The class will culminate with critical Bridge Resource Management (BRM) training on full mission ship simulators at the Maritime Simulation Institute. The BRM training will prepare NOAA Corps Officers to effectively stand their first navigation watches at sea and to respond appropriately to shipboard emergencies.
The professional maritime instruction will be held at both the NOAA Corps Officer Training Center located at the U.S. Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut, and at the Maritime Simulation Institute’s headquarters in Middletown, Rhode Island.
The experiential simulations used by the Institute are custom tailored to meet each client’s specific training needs. The NOAA Corps Officers will not only develop their shiphandling skills; they will also be challenged in simulator-training sessions by instances of equipment failure, extreme environments, unusual navigation circumstances and other potential emergency situations.
“At the Maritime Simulation Institute, we train mariners to mitigate risk and navigate safely and successfully by gaining realistic, practical experience on our high fidelity ship simulators,” said Margaret Kaigh Doyle, the Institute’s vice president of development. “The mariners we teach are thoroughly assessed on our simulators under a wide range of operating scenarios and environmental conditions—and as a result, they are prepared when they face similar situations on the water. We are proud to offer our services to NOAA and to the important work they do.”
Maritime Simulation Institute instructors are providing professional maritime training as part of the current NOAA Basic Officer Training Class, which is now underway and will continue through the end of May 2013. In addition to the ongoing nautical instruction for NOAA’s newest Ensigns in the Basic Officer Training Class, for the past three years, the Maritime Simulation Institute has also provided simulation training in Advanced Watchkeeping for NOAA mid-career officers as part of NOAA’s Refresher Training, or REFTRA. The REFTRA course prepares NOAA Corps Officers rotating from shore assignments back to sea, often in command of one of NOAA’s fleet of ships.