I’m exploring whether a credit-hour continuing professional development scheme could sit alongside the 5‑year STCW revalidation, recognizing short courses (e.g., a 2‑day Basic Training refresher, 8 hours ECDIS update) and meaningful onboard drills toward a transparent threshold. If your company already tracks training hours, what workload and documentation work in practice without turning this into box‑checking?
We track hours in SuccessFactors and it works if each item has a code; your “8 hours ECDIS” maps cleanly, and we count onboard drills via a 1‑page checklist signed by the master and uploaded with photos — , the proof burden is the only pain… The trick is a monthly export signed by the DP that totals CPD hours alongside the 5‑year STCW certs, but note some flags still won’t accept hours without a course cert. A simple template like the Nautical Institute CPD log helps: https://www.nautinst.org/cpd — would that satisfy your compliance team?
Quick example: we use Helm CONNECT to log CPD hours alongside the 5‑year STCW, and treat your “8 hours ECDIS update” as 8 credits; onboard drills are captured via a PowerApps QR at the muster station, auto‑signed by the master and dumped to SharePoint as a PDF. Small caveat: set caps per category (e.g., max 12 hrs/yr from drills) so folks don’t game it — otherwise this gets messy fast, but @theodores92’s code‑per‑item approach maps cleanly.
On our coastal fleet, the simplest win was a “no code, no credit” rule and a monthly cap by rank so folks can’t cram everything in the last week of the cycle; drills only count if the master uploads a quick photo of the muster board plus a 2‑line debrief. That maps to what @ellie_r62 noted, but we also limit carry‑over so credits expire after 12 months, which kept the log from turning into a sticker collection. Caveat: it adds admin at sea, so we use an offline LMS form that syncs when alongside.
We went with an “evidence or it didn’t happen” setup: a SharePoint form auto-fills vessel/rank and takes a certificate + provider course ID for short courses like the 2‑day Basic Training refresher, and a logbook photo with OOW sign‑off for drills. Admin stays under two minutes per entry, and we require a quarterly minimum so folks don’t stack it at the end. @ellie_r62 your checklist idea would bolt straight onto the form.
Building on @carter_james47’s guardrails, we set a per‑quarter minimum and require mate/master sign‑off linked to the SMS drill entry — like ballast, track it or it shifts on you. To keep the tally honest, short webinars need a 3‑question check and a provider course ID; accredited simulator time counts 1.5x but is capped. For a baseline, The Nautical Institute’s CPD notes help: https://www.nautinst.org/careers/cpd.html.
We got traction by tagging every hour to a specific STCW function (Navigation, Cargo, Emergency, Support), so the dashboard shows where someone’s light rather than just a total; “no carryover” between functions kept it honest. Small caveat: it adds a few seconds per entry, but the clarity cut end‑of‑cycle cram and made flag audits smoother.