In August, we delivered a customised course for the Danish State Pilotage (DanPilot) that provides all types of transit pilotages in Danish waters. Every year DanPilot guides more than 10,000 ships safely in and out of the Baltic sea and Danish harbours. Certified by the Danish Maritime Authority, the pilots possess the local knowledge and experience to guide vessels and crew safely through the twists and turns of the narrow Danish straits and harbours.
DanPilot is a very proactive organisation in many domains, aiming to be a global frontrunner in marine piloting. They approached us showing a great interest in exploring the way pilots and controllers do their competence assessment, to gain inspiration and further develop the concept within their domain to set new standards.
To design a relevant course for this new field, our training expert, Anne-Mette Petri, spent a few days following the operational work, exploring and familiarising herself with the daily activities of marine pilots. She took part in four different pilot missions to experience the diversity and challenges of both harbour and transit pilotage. The observations were used to customise a two-day course to suit the needs of DanPilot.
There are many similarities in the way of working among marine pilots, air pilots and air traffic controllers. The marine pilots are also divided into ‘Harbour Pilots’ and ‘En-Route Pilots’. Likewise they train new pilots on OJT and provide continual assessments for existing pilots, where many of the same training concepts and methodologies are being used for both ATCOs and airline pilots.
The important inputs and observations from the study tour were taken into account when developing and delivering a customised two-day course to suit the needs of DanPilot. The course participants’ feedback was excellent.
“It was a great experience to be trained by Anne-Mette, coming from a world which in many aspects is highly different from ours, and at the same time experience all the issues we have in common. It shows, that training, information and knowledge sharing between our industries when dealing with human factors, behaviour, skills and safety is an unexplored high valuable field,”
– says Hans Anders Pedersen, Deputy Chief Pilot.