STCW Wizard presented to ship owners with Norwegian Maritime Directorate

A new Sectoria Systems' project called the "STCW Wizard" (see description on our products page) was presented for representatives of Norwegian ship owners, among others Bergesen, Torvald Klaveness Group and Red Band. The feedback was unanimously positive and there was a clearly stated request to realise the project as soon as possible.

The forum hosted by the Norwegian Maritime Directorate provided valuable information and clues on features to be included in the system to make it complete in terms of its area of application. Comments from both trade and port state divisions of the Directorate revealed a need for answers to their problems. The solution: STCW Wizard is currently and effectively addressing these.

For the trade, it was of particular interest to be able to obtain official information on a flag state's regulations on certificates and competence, and it was even suggested as a solution to resolving disputes in foreign port state controls. For the Norwegian port state control, it was said to represent a tool for concise and detailed information to ensure fair and effective certificate and competence inspections on board ships flying the Norwegian flag.

Norwegian Maritime Directorate to Manila with joint project STCW Wizard

Representatives of the Norwegian Maritime Directorate are leaving for Manila, Philippines to attend Lloyd's Manning Conference 2001. Another point on the agenda is to meet with the Philippine maritime authorities to discuss Philippine participation in the system. Considering the relatively small size of the Philippine fleet, the most interesting aspect will be the use of the certificate database exchange which creates the possibility of administration endorsements for the majority of Philippine seafarers. More news on the matter after the return of the Directorate representatives.

Joint project Wizard

The Norwegian Maritime Directorate and Sectoria Systems have agreed to develop a new system called STCW Wizard following the identification of the need to efficiently supply the trade with STCW related national legislation. The main feature of the system will be a database containing the national legislation on competence and certificates far seafarers. Users both from the trade and the Directorate will be able to query the database to obtain detailed official information on competence and certificate requirements for any position/function on any type of ship in any trade flying the Norwegian flag. The system will expand to include all flag states national legislation to become a tool employable for both ship owners and port state controls worldwide. "No better way to obtain global agreement on these matters" a Directorate official says.

The system will be developed further in phase II where national certificate databases are viewable through the system to cut some red tape in the process of endorsing certificates issued by other administrations. The goal is that as many administrations as possible will finally join the entire system to create one unified source of official information on national STCW related legislation accessible anywhere in the world. The free service will be provided via the Internet. Please contacts us regarding release information suing the contact form xxxx provided in order to receive it on e-mail.