20Sep
Over the past 3,5 years a consortium of fifteen partners has worked hard to provide educational materials for teaching at Inland Waterway Transport (IWT) education and training institutes. The consortium, which collaborated in project ‘COMPETING’, paved the way for the introduction of competency based future-proof education for (upcoming) crew members throughout the European Union.
The project delivered E-learning materials, course manuals, an European Training Record Book, video’s to recruit and attract new students and a Quality Assurance and Quality Control system.
COMPETING was formed by eleven IWT education & training institutes and four social partners from the IWT sector. It was for the first time, that on a European level, all key stakeholders cooperated to develop European wide recognised and modern curricula and teaching materials for the IWT sector. The project responded to changes made in the Directive 2397/2017 which lays down the competences of crew members who work on European interconnected waterways and arranges the recognition of qualifications for IWT-crew on a European level.
‘’For the harmonisation of all inland navigation education and training the COMPETING deliverables are very important,’’ says president Arjen Mintjes of EDINNA, the network of European education and training institutes in inland navigation. ‘’I’m very pleased with all the materials delivered by the COMPETING project, and I expect all EDINNA members will make use of them.’’
‘’So far we only received very positive feedback from managers and teachers at IWT education and training institutes. The materials will help them to update and further improve their education. Harmonised and future-proof education contributes to not only the mobility on the European labour market, but also to more safety on the European inland waterways.’’ reacts Jan Smallegange of Rotterdam based STC Group as project manager of COMPETING.
In the COMPETING project, teaching materials accompanying the seven chapters describing the competencies on Operational and Management level were made. These include navigation, operation of the craft, cargo handling, stowage and passenger transport, marine engineering and electrical, electronical and control engineering, maintenance and repair, communication and health, safety and environmental protection.
All outcomes can be downloaded at this website (under downloads) and at the website of EDINNA. At 13 October 2022 the project organises an online seminar for managers and teachers at IWT education and training institutes. All outcomes will be presented and explained during this seminar.
