MAAP: A LEADER IN MARITIME EDUCATION AND INNOVATION
As VAdm Santos proudly stated, MAAP was built and slowly nurtured with the future in sight and it will always be ready. It was built to be one of the most modernized and excellent institutions committed to providing its students with the best possible education.

Even before the global shipping industry began to shift towards digitization and automation, MAAP was investing heavily in these areas to prepare its students for the challenges of the 21st century.

Started operating in 1999, the school’s curriculum is modeled after the United States Merchant Marine Academy (USMMA) in Kings Point, New York, and it is governed by international maritime tripartite groups of employers, unions, and ship owners.

“We started with 150 cadets training in an 18-hectare land,” VAdm. Santos said in a published Manila Times article. MAAP now has thousands of cadets in training in a 103-hectare campus in Bataan. “We continuously raise the bar of education, not just by adhering with standards, but pioneering benchmarks on maritime education and training (MET),” Santos said.

One of MAAP’s most significant innovations is the establishment of the MAAP Maritime Simulation Center. The center is equipped with state-of-the-art simulators that allow students to train in a real-world environment. This is essential for students who want to become seafarers, as they need to be able to handle a variety of situations that they may encounter on the job.
The institution has recently adopted a range of maritime simulators for its new and extensive Innovation Laboratory. MAAP has been one of the first maritime schools to adopt new simulation-based training tools for years.

The simulators are powered by Kongsberg Digital. They are central to the future-oriented Lab and will augment an already extensive range of K-Sim products, thus strengthening MAAP’s position as a regional institution of excellence for maritime education and innovation.

MAAP was also one of the few maritime institutions in the country to adopt augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) programs for a futuristic and gamified approach to education.

The simulations crafted for these programs carefully mimic situational problems (such as natural calamities) which cannot be replicated by real-life training. The innovative systems, paired with Learning Management Systems (LMS), enable instructors to streamline their work to save time and redirect their energy into providing additional assistance to their students.

MAAP also launched blockchain technology via a Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) that will store and contain all credentials of MAAP Cadets.

The records can be scanned using a QR code, making them difficult to hack. The cadet only needs to show their e-wallets to agencies and offices they are required to go through.

“It is very difficult to hack. So, what we did is all our cadets now, their certificates will have QR codes. There’s a photo taken of [these], and they are loaded into the e-wallet of the cadet. The cadet will only show his e-wallet to show his certificates,” Santos said.

He said that this has the potential to make other maritime institutions adopt distributed ledgers to digitize operations. It also eliminates the risk of damage to seafarers’ documents.

Strengthening MAAP’s push for continued excellence in maritime education and training are two training vessels on hand for a dedicated onboard training of MAAP cadets. TS Felix Oca and MV Kapitan Gregorio Oca make MAAP one of the very few maritime academies that can boast of owning training ships.

Santos said these training ships will ensure that cadets acquire skills that match the requirements of the shipping industry and ensure their employability.
He also assured that MAAP is very keen on curriculum inclusion and seminars on all topics, information, and education campaigns on “green shipping” and decarbonization, which he stressed is a very important development in global shipping.

MAAP’s board of governors is a group comprised of some of the organizations in the international maritime industry, including the Filipino Association of Maritime Employers (FAME), the International Transport Workers’ Federation (ITF), the All Japan Seamen’s Union (JSU), the Norwegian Seafarers’ Union (NSU), the International Maritime Employers’ Council (IMEC), the Danish Shipowners Association, the Norwegian Shipowners Association (NSA), the Japanese Shipowners Association (JSA), and the International Mariners Management Association of Japan (IMMAJ). [continue at next page]

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