Seafarer Skills and Competence for Autonomous Shipping¶

Status: established
Last updated: 2026-05-31
Sources: Hcas_Ch6_Skills_Competence.Pdf, Cmoroc_Appendix E_Competence Tables_V2 2_231020.Pdf, Cmoroc_Appendix F_Module Catalogue_V2 3_231025.Pdf
Tags: [skills, competence, training, mass, seafarers, stcw, curriculum, roc, remote-operations]

Summary¶

Developing appropriate skills and competence is treated as a precondition for implementing Maritime Autonomous Surface Ships, and the need extends beyond seafarers to all maritime personnel working with autonomous systems (Hynnekleiv, 2023). During HUMANE workshops the phrase "we need new skills" recurred across the whole industry, yet describing those skills first requires understanding how the human role will change. The EMSA CMOROC study converts this general demand into specific, structured outputs: five competence tables for ROC operator roles and a competence-based curriculum, both compared against STCW (European Maritime Safety Agency, 2023e; 2023f).

Body¶

Context¶

This article draws on three sources that move the skills question from a general demand to a specific framework. Hynnekleiv (2023, HCAS ch. 6) frames competence development as a precondition for MASS and reports the HUMANE workshop finding that "we need new skills"; the EMSA CMOROC study (European Maritime Safety Agency, 2023e, 2023f) converts that demand into competence tables and a curriculum; and Lützhöft and Earthy (2023b, HCAS ch. 12) raise doubt about the STCW foundation on which both rest. In this knowledge base the article is the bridge between the Humane Project finding that new skills are needed and the Cmoroc Roc Competence Framework that names them, and it identifies the skills that staffing the Remote Operation Centre in Remote Operation Centres Mass will require.

Key Points¶

Hynnekleiv (2023) begins with the changing human role rather than with technology, framing competence development for seafarers and other personnel as a prerequisite for successful MASS implementation. He cites World Maritime Day statements by Chief Inspector Andrew Moll (2021) and IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim (2022) that humans remain in charge but must be appropriately trained and that technological solutions must benefit people (PDF p. 1, orig. p. 50). He notes that new technology can change work in different ways — modifying tasks, automating them, moving roles from ship to shore, reducing crew size, or creating roles that never existed before — and that the HUMANE assumption was that the need for new competence concerns all maritime personnel, on board and on shore (PDF pp. 1–2, orig. pp. 50–51). The recurring workshop refrain "we need new skills" came not only from training and education providers but from shipping companies, shipowners, technology manufacturers, classification societies, government agencies, and insurers (PDF p. 1, orig. p. 50).

The EMSA CMOROC study (European Maritime Safety Agency, 2023e) operationalises this demand into named ROC operator competences. Its five competence tables set minimum requirements for MASS Navigators, Senior Navigators/Supervisors, Engineers, Senior Engineers, and System Administrators, at operational or management level, for remote-controlled MASS of 30 m length or more, applying whether or not crew are aboard (PDF p. 4, orig. p. 4). These were derived systematically from process descriptions and compared with the existing STCW competence tables (see Cmoroc Roc Competence Framework). The module catalogue (European Maritime Safety Agency, 2023f) arranges them into a teachable curriculum: a Basic Program covering all operators plus navigator and engineer/system-administrator strands and in-service training, and an Advanced Program for senior operators, with modules carrying summarised learning outcomes and competence levels (PDF pp. 6–7, orig. pp. 6–7). Module-level objectives such as conducting a safe monitoring watch for a fleet of MASS and operating all automation and autonomy systems and remote maintenance (2023f, PDF pp. 6–7, orig. pp. 6–7) describe capabilities that have no direct equivalent in conventional single-ship bridge training. The move from a single watch to fleet-level monitoring is what makes this a genuinely new competence rather than a relabelling of existing seafaring skills.

Lützhöft and Earthy (2023b) record a view that existing training may itself be inadequate: that STCW is of questionable suitability and efficacy as a model for sea-going education and training, and that this should be resolved before adding a change as large as MASS (PDF p. 1, orig. p. 147; see Humane Project).

Conclusion¶

The three sources agree that MASS requires new competence and that this competence is not a simple extension of conventional bridge skills. Hynnekleiv (2023) establishes the demand; the EMSA CMOROC study (2023e, 2023f) supplies the concrete answer in roles, tables, and modules. They diverge on the foundation: CMOROC benchmarks its competence tables against STCW and treats it as the reference, whereas Lützhöft and Earthy (2023b) question STCW's adequacy as a training model in the first place. That tension — building new competence on a foundation one source treats as settled and another treats as doubtful — is left unresolved in the corpus.

References¶

European Maritime Safety Agency (2023e) CMOROC Appendix E - Competence Tables. Identification of Competences for MASS Operators in Remote Operation Centres, V2.2. Lisbon: EMSA. cmoroc2023appendixE

European Maritime Safety Agency (2023f) CMOROC Appendix F - Module Catalogue. Identification of Competences for MASS Operators in Remote Operation Centres, V2.3. Lisbon: EMSA. cmoroc2023appendixF

Hynnekleiv, A. (2023) 'Skills and competence', in Human-Centred Autonomous Shipping. Boca Raton: CRC Press, ch. 6. doi: 10.1201/9781003430957-6. hynnekleiv2023skills

Lim, K. (2022) World Maritime Day 2022 statement, in IMO (2022) World maritime theme 2022 [Press release], 14 June. Available at: https://www.imo.org/en/About/Events/Pages/World-Maritime-Theme-2022.aspx. To be validated.

Lützhöft, M. & Earthy, J. (2023b) 'MASS is everywhere – or is it?', in Human-Centred Autonomous Shipping. Boca Raton: CRC Press, ch. 12. doi: 10.1201/9781003430957-12. lutzhoft2023mass

Moll, A. (2021) World Maritime Day 2021 statement, in GOV.UK (2021) Humans are still in charge [Press release], 30 September. Available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/humans-are-still-in-charge. To be validated.

Open Questions¶

HUMANE flags STCW's adequacy as unresolved while CMOROC benchmarks against it; the two positions are not reconciled in the corpus.
Which competences are genuinely new versus transferable from conventional bridge work? CMOROC names roles but the corpus does not yet quantify the gap.