We’re pleased to announce that the JST is now a Marine & Coastguard Agency (MCA) approved training centre for Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) Basic Safety Training. This enables us to carry out necessary training elements to help protect lives at sea including:

·         Personal Survival Techniques (using the pool at Andark Diving)

·         Elementary First Aid

·         Personal Safety & Social Responsibilities

·         Proficiency in Security Awareness

·         Fire Prevention & Fire Fighting (via Fire Aid in Hythe)

This training is a legal requirement of all seafarers and covers familiarisation and basic safety training. This new training centre allows the JST to not only train our professional crews in safety, but also our voluntary Bosun’s Mates who are working towards their final training goals as Navigational Watch Ratings. These courses have been carefully designed by our Ship Operations Manager Andy Spark, Chief Mate Richard Cruse and Lord Nelson Medical Purser Darren Hardy and have taken a year and a half to develop.

At the end of July, the Maritime Coastguard Agency attended our new training sessions to assess the course content. They firstly joined 8 students at FireAid in Hythe for their fire-fighter training and then headed to the JST offices for the further 4 remaining courses. After a long week, we were delighted to hear we passed with flying colours!

This new training centre wouldn’t have been possible without the very generous support of Ocean Safety Limited. Ocean Safety have been a long term supporter of the JST, and have already donated 16 inflatable lifejackets to our ships this year. Andy Spark, Ship Operations Manager said:

“The list of equipment we needed to provide these courses was lengthy. We charge no money to our volunteers to cover the cost of the courses, so the cost of life rafts, immersion suits and life jackets would have meant we just could not have afforded to run the courses. Once again Ocean Safety stepped up and kindly provided all the equipment we needed free of charge, a fantastic gesture from them once again”.