The practical exercises are broadly structured and differ in subject matter and degree of difficulty. They are specifically designed for the experience and further career planning of personnel at NSB. In a training class of 6 participants three each will be assigned to one bridge. In their respective group, each trainee passes through the different tasks of ship’s command and navigation in a self appointed rotational system.
A briefing informs all trainees about the objectives of the simulation, the assignment of tasks, and the parameters of the ship, followed by recording and logging the actions and behaviours of the participants during the course of an exercise. These records are the basis for analyzing the simulated situation in the concluding discussion.
Contents of navigation classes include main topics like: “Navigating in coastal waters”, “Berthing and unberthing manoeuvres”, “Collision prevention”, “Hazardous incidents” as well as “Search and rescue”. Depending on the degree of difficulty, the simulation contains further subjects, thus increasing the complexity of the exercise with the group of participants and duration of the class.
Basis of the main focuses chosen is the interaction of the bridge team. Taking the aspects of bridge team-, bridge resource- and crisis management into consideration the course participants are deliberately confronted with criteria of modern managerial functions. A professional operating procedure can only be organised successfully in a team. The courses meet the IMO as well as the NSB quality management requirements.