As a result of a tender of the European Union, with Publication Reference EuropAid/120541/C/Sv/Multi, we can announce with pleasure that the award for the project entitled: Maritime Training: Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine has been given to the Consortium of Partners as follows:

• HPTI Hamburg Port Training Institute GmbH, Hamburg, Germany;
• Scott Wilson Consultancy, Basingstoke, UK;
• Hypodomi Consulting SA, Athens, Greece;
• QMS Maritime Training Center Ltd, Athens, Greece;
• TuTech Innovation GmbH, Hamburg, Germany.

The Project covers the sector of maritime training in the above mentioned countries and has the overall objective to:
“Contribute to shipping safety, prevention of marine pollution, environmental awareness and to create capacity building of institutions in the maritime sector in the TRACECA regions”.

The cross functional team of professional organisations combine experience, knowledge and expertise to leverage their qualifications upon the receiving countries and their respective Maritime Training Centres by contributing to the improvement of maritime training and strengthening of maritime training institutions in the region as well as to the promotion of cooperation among countries and sub-regions in the maritime sector.

Within this EU TACIS project an assessment of the regional training centres of the beneficiary countries is being carried out in order to find out strengths and weaknesses of the individual training centres and to discuss the possibility of establishing training programmes tailored to the needs of the maritime industry. Training needs of partners in the maritime sector like maritime administrations, ports, shipping lines etc. are assessed and the chances to cooperate in the training process discussed. The assessments, findings and recommendations are based on the conventions, resolutions and recommendations of the International Maritime Organisation and EU standards.

The Project’s geographical coverage is: Ukraine (Odessa, Kiev); Georgia (Batumi, Tbilisi); Azerbaijan (Baku); and Kazakhstan (Aktau, Astana). Over the course of two years (October 2005 — October 2007), two regional offices are set up in Odessa/ Ukraine and Baku/Azerbaijan to monitor the implementation of the Project with the expert assistance of local experts, short term EU experts and long term Key Experts.

The overall objective of this Project is to contribute to shipping safety, prevention of marine pollution, environmental awareness as well as to capacity building of institutions in the maritime sector in the TRACECA region.

The Project will contribute to the overall objective through addressing improved maritime training and strengthened maritime training institutions in accordance with requirements of conventions, resolutions and recommendations of the International Maritime Organisation and EU standards.

To do this the Project is involved with the promotion of cooperation among countries and sub-regions to unite efforts and resources to cover training needs at national and sub-regional level; to promote tailor-made training and diploma programmes for the maritime administrations, ports, terminals, shipping and multi-modal transport sector and the coast guards; to deliver training and study tours for multipliers and to develop training material based on IMO publications, conventions, rules and regulations.

Overall the Project is headed by Hamburg Port Training Institute with partners Hypodomi Consulting of Greece and Scott Wilson of the UK. The main work is being carried out by three EU Experts, Captain R. Amersdorffer and Dr. A Bernaerts of Germany and Roger J Holt MNI of Great Britain.

Captain Amersdorffer and Roger Holt have been instrumental in visiting about 40 colleges in the participating countries and evaluating there resources. Dr A Bernaerts has been concerned with the institutional and legal set up of institutes. Roger also provided a Training Need Analysis to assist the team in providing what training is required by the area.

At the very beginning it was realised that communication between countries was paramount and the Experts have organised a series of International Workshops, Odessa and Baku, covering topics related to learning and the needs of the industry, and STCW and Management Systems. These workshops have been attended by representatives of the four participating countries.

Secondly, a series of National Seminars have been in organised in all four countries that covered Learning, ISM Code and Risk Management, all very important subjects in this region as well as the greater maritime industry. The third level of training being provided is Specific Courses, a present Captain Amersdorffer is undertaking to provide the new information on stability in each of the four countries.

A subsidiary area of training being undertaken is the integration of training establishments’ Maritime English teachers into the maritime language by including personnel involved in this area in the all training courses.
All this information and training programmes are contained on the projects website, www.maritime-training.biz
Overall this is an important project for the area and all training establishments and government administrations have provided the fullest cooperation. With a full training programme outlined for the next 10 months we can look on our time in the Caucasus as well spent.