It is widely understood that a ship’s safe, efficient operation relies heavily on the crew’s competence, which can be broken down into technical and non-technical skills. Whereas best practices for assessing technical (hard) skills are well understood, approaches to evaluating non-technical (soft) skills and ‘Behavioural Competence’ are still relatively new. The new e-learning title from Ocean Technologies Group ,“ Behavioural Competency, An Introduction” is designed to close this gap and provide assessors with a clear awareness  of Behavioural Competence, why it was introduced, and how best to assess it.

The title is a valuable new addition to  over 800 titles that make up the Ocean Learning Library which includes titles from the group’s learning brands, Seagull, Videotel, Marlins and MTS alongside those of valued OEMs and 3^rd parties. As well as being an excellent resource for anyone looking to fully understand behavioural competency , it also completements OTGs digital competency management system that includes the INTERTANKO ICMG and BCAV standards.

The Intertanko/OCIMF Behavioural Competency and Verification (BCAV) standard was launched in 2020 as best practice guidelines with the aim of aiding the assessment of a seafarer’s non-technical skills against a coherent and consistent framework of competencies. Until its publication, competency management had been focussed on the development and assessment of technical skills, but the attitudes and non-technical skills of seafarers are known to exert a significant influence over how safely, and effectively, ships operate. 

The concept of ‘Behavioural Competence’, and of assessing it, is relatively new to the industry. Many of those onboard do not yet have experience of assessing ‘Behavioural competence’ formally.

Now that BCAV is a recommendation from OCIMF and Intertanko, many companies will now be expected to be actively assessing Behavioural Competence.

The aim of the module is to describe what Behavioural Competence is, why it was introduced, and how best to assess it. This will assist compliance with the general provisions of STCW Section A-I/6, Training and Assessment, which states that “Any person conducting in-service assessment of competence of a seafarer…shall have received appropriate guidance in assessment methods and practice”.