The next step on the maritime education and training in the era of autonomous shipping

A literature review

Abstract

The development of autonomous shipping is in continuous growth; technology evolution is going on faster steps and new projects are being developed looking for more efficient, more sustainable and safer shipping operations. Autonomous vessels feature a technology that uses a large range of physical sensors to control autonomous functions, as well as a high advance monitoring and control systems, including the use of the newest communications technology. This technological emergence has been driving concerns about the decline in the number of seafarers and jobs, which are expected to be replaced by Artificial Intelligence and the Autonomous Systems. However, the trend will be the opportunity for new businesses and job creation, which will require highly skilled crews and operators. As far as further steps are being developed on higher autonomy, the landscape of jobs related to seafarers will change. For instance, remote operations will transfer most of the seafarers to land-based control centres, causing that the main skills to be developed should drive to more expertise in technology, communication and network administrators without losing the standards as per STCW Convention. This literature review addresses this new and emerging topic to lead to an initial conceptualization of the new Maritime Education and Training (MET) framework and find eliciting information for developing new academic assessment. At the end, this contribution discusses published research in the era of autonomous shipping in order to describe the next step for MET, developing qualifications standards for the new crew and on-shore operators.