During his remarks to the Maritime Trades Department, AFL-CIO executive board, U.S. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta delivered big news concerning the SIU-affiliated Paul Hall Center for Maritime Training and Education.
The secretary announced that the Paul Hall Center’s vessel security officer (VSO) course is the first such curriculum approved by the U.S. Maritime Administration (MarAd). He then congratulated SIU President Michael Sacco, the union and the Piney Point, Md.-based school for the distinction.
The VSO course may be useful for unlicensed and licensed mariners alike, because a ship’s master may designate any crew member to be in charge of vessel security.
“This was a great team effort on the part of the instructors, administrators and others,” noted Paul Hall Center Curriculum Development Coordinator Lois Stephenson. “It demonstrated a truly coordinated push by the school, the union and its contracted companies on a matter of great importance to the entire industry: vessel security and related mariner training.”
The Paul Hall Center’s VSO curriculum consists of 12.5 hours of instruction. According to the school, students who successfully complete the class should be able to undertake the duties and responsibilities of a Ship Security Officer as defined in Section A/12.2 of the International Ship and Port Facility Security (ISPS) Code.
Among several others, those duties may include handling regular security inspections of the ship to ensure that appropriate security measures are maintained; maintaining and supervising the implementation of the ship security plan; coordinating the security aspects of the handling of cargo and ship’s stores with other shipboard personnel and with the relevant port facility security officers; proposing modifications to the ship security plan; and reporting to the company security officer any deficiencies and non-conformities identified during internal audits, periodic reviews, security inspections and verifications of compliance and implementing any corrective actions.
School personnel noted that efforts to attain the needed certification dated to late 2003, when the center’s curriculum development department was tasked with working out a VSO course to meet the industry’s needs. While awaiting finalization of the government approval process, the Paul Hall Center moved forward with the VSO training beginning last year.
To date, approximately 200 students have completed the class, both at the Paul Hall Center and at their respective workplaces. That includes mariners from both the deep sea and inland divisions.
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