The Chairman of the Global Marina Institute (GMI), Tony Browne CMM, predicts a lasting impact on marina training as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. He comments: “The necessary embrace of online platforms for meetings, education webinars and courses is fast-tracking our industry’s permanent use of these methods. We are a global organisation facilitating training across the world from the UK/Europe, the Middle East, Asia and into Australia and New Zealand. The distance between marinas is significant in many countries and the cost of face-to-training due to the travel can be a barrier to participation. Online communication allows more people to access GMI information and learning. We are also starting to see that our industry members are connecting more frequently to discuss issues and share ideas.”
As an example of this change, the GMI endorsed Intermediate Marina Management course is being conducted online for the first time. What is traditionally a 4.5-day face-to-face course will also be delivered online this year through the Marina Industries Association (MIA) over a period of four weeks.
As well as marina courses, the GMI facilitates an annual certification of senior industry members. The increase in online learning is resulting in changes to GMI’s professional development process associated with certification. Tony Browne commented: “while-face to-face meetings and learning will always be at the forefront of education, any senior marina manager or professional now also needs to embrace the new learning platforms. GMI’s certification will therefore recognise this and give greater weight to online professional development.”
Blue Davies, Head of Training at British Marina, comments: “I’m interested to hear from marinas regarding their thoughts on this and how best we can shape marina manager training going forward.” Please contact Blue by email: adavies@britishmarine.co.uk