Maersk to build centre for maritime skill development in Tamil Nadu

October 26, 2019: Maersk, the global shipping company, on Friday laid the foundation stone of ‘A.P. Moller – Maersk Centre of Excellence’ facility at Thenpattinam in Tamil Nadu, to support skill development and training needs for Maersk cadets across deck, electrical and engine. Maersk has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Academy of Maritime Education and Training (AMET) University to jointly operate this facility with an aim to maintain a steady channel of Indian seafarers for its operations.

“The 'A. P. Moller – Maersk Centre of Excellence’ will be spread over 8 acres of land (32,375 sq mt) and will be a part of a larger 12 acre (48,500 sq. mt.) maritime campus set up by AMET. The centre will be equipped with world-class facilities’ like smart classrooms, workshops, and will house approximately 160 deck & engine cadets for the Bachelor’s programme in Nautical Science & Marine Engineering. Additionally, electrical cadets will be taken in as per requirement on a yearly basis,” says the release.

Niels Bruus, Head of Marine Human Recourses, Maersk said “Maersk does not have any exclusive training facility in India for its cadets currently. We are relying on multiple colleges for training them. The A. P. Moller – Maersk Centre of Excellence will help us focus our skill development efforts on a single location, especially in a country like India from where we have the highest recruitment of cadets in the world. We hope to inspire our cadets to explore horizons beyond their own by synergizing AMET’s 25+ years’ experience in maritime education and our vision to train our cadets in a world class training facility building enhanced collaboration between company and academia.”

“We want to add more value to the training standards during the school phase of our cadets. There is a gap between theoretical syllabus and important competency needs on our modern container vessels. This is the gap that we are looking forward to plugging at our centre” Niels Bruus added.

Dr J. Ramachandran, Chancellor of the AMET University said “We have worked closely and cohesively with the global shipping industry and especially Maersk aligning its objectives regularly to suit the demands of the evolving maritime industry in India for almost two decades now. Forged with a mission to be the fountainhead for nurturing finest intellectual capital base for the worldwide maritime sector, education at AMET caters to the comprehensive development of all its students so as to make them better educated, more articulate and demanding. We are glad to be partnering with Maersk to set up the centre of excellence with which we will raise the bar in maritime education.”

Maersk and AMET are aiming to bring opportunities for aspiring seafarers to be trained in facilities enabled by modern teaching aids, well-equipped workshops for practical training, marine workshop for hands-on training on marine auxiliaries, ship-in-campus and other such facilities backed by an overall conducive learning environment.

The Chennai based Academy of Maritime Education and Training (AMET) is a pioneer Institution established for the dissemination of knowledge and training, exclusively in the field of Maritime Education. Started in the year 1993, about 4000 students are currently undergoing various undergraduate and postgraduate courses, besides research programs.