Members of Swedish Parliament become sea captain students for a day

On Friday 25 November, the Department of Mechanics and Maritime Sciences welcomed the Swedish Shipowners’ Association who along with a group of Members of Parliament from “Moderaterna” and the Social Democrats made a study visit to the maritime education simulator center. The visit took place at the initiative of Swedish Shipowners’ Association with the aim of increasing politicians' understanding of the opportunities and challenges of maritime education.

“Shipping is really important for Sweden as it transports around 90 percent of all goods to and from Sweden. Which is why we wanted to inform the Members of the Swedish Parliament about shipping and tell them about the opportunities as well as the challenges that we are facing now, says Carolina Kihlström, communications manager at Swedish Shipowners’ Association.

Fredrik Olindersson, Head of the Division of Maritime Studies, started by giving a brief background and a status quo report on maritime education today – what prospects a degree in maritime entails but also what challenges the educational field is facing.

“We experienced a peak between 2008 - 2015 when we had a lot of applicants for our maritime training courses, but now we’re having difficulties finding enough students to fill the places. This is even though the engineering degree you get when you study marine engineering is viable also in other areas, such as in nuclear power, energy and the petrochemical industry. It’s also a very practical education, with a lot of contact with industry and internships in Sweden and abroad,” says Fredrik.

The role of simulators – in education and research

During the visit, the guests were also given the opportunity to try to navigate ships at sea in a simulator. But before it was time to take their seats at the helm, Mats Gruvefeldt, instructor, and Head of Unit for Nautical Studies at the division, takes the opportunity to give a quick introduction - how the simulators are used in training and how an exercise can be carried out.

“A simulator is much more advanced than a video game. There are many more factors that a simulator is able to take into account - depth, water conditions and so on. We always have a purpose for the exercise and a set scenario, but you never know what will happen. In the simulator, we can practice everything from ship maneuvering to methodology and cooperation between docks. You must use both the technical equipment and each other's knowledge. We also have a control room from where we follow and record the entire exercise so that we can discuss what happened afterwards. How were decisions made when something happened? What mistakes were made, what did we do right?" explains Mats Gruvefeldt and adds:

“We want our students to get as much time in the simulators as possible. And if you ask them, they probably don't think they get enough.”

The two maritime students Axel and Hilda at the back of the room nod in agreement. They’re both doing their fourth year of sea captain training and will be offering assistance when and if the guests encounter any problems out at sea in the simulator exercise.

And the simulators are not only helpful in the practical exercises, but also play a major role in the research that is carried out at the division.

“With the help of the simulators, we can also conduct research on, for example, autonomous ships or when we do research in simulator pedagogy,” explains Daniel Ernstsson, instructor at the maritime training courses.

Who’s captain at the helm?

But now the time has finally come for the guests to board the virtual bridge. Mats provides the scenario that applies to the exercise:
“We have two vessels that will be going towards Gothenburg and one ship that starts in Fiskehamnskröken in Gothenburg and is on its way out to sea. You’re all participating in the same exercise, and you will therefore be meeting each other. The goal is to get as far as possible in the allotted time,” instructs Mats.

The group is quickly divided into three teams and placed in different simulator bridges - and the exercise may begin. In one of the larger bridge simulators, politician Maria Stockhaus grabs the levers of the ship "Elvy" and on the projected sea view on the 360-screen, you see the ship moving forward across the water. The buttons glow in green, red and white in the dimmed room and the team tries to understand their position on the bridge's navigation screen. Not an easy task, it turns out. Suddenly a buoy appears in the water.

“There’s a green buoy, does that mean the buoy should be on the starboard side?” asks Maria.

“That's right,” says Mats Gruvefeldt, who is watching the group from a distance.

“Good thing I already have a driver's license for leisure boats,” laughs Maria.

After a little while, an oncoming ferry appears. The group realizes that they may have to change their route to avoid a collision. With the help of the sea captain student Axel, the group manages to deviate from the planned route and everyone can relax. At least for the moment.

But soon they have to face the next challenge. The ship finds itself right behind the other team's vessel, “Fure West”, and decides to do an overtake. Mats advises that it might be a good idea to call and announce that an overtaking is in the works. Student Axel shows how you just pick up the receiver and press the button to announce, like a walkie-talkie.

“Fure West, Fure West, this is Elvy. We're going to do an overtake. Over.”

The answer comes immediately.

“We don't like you to do an overtake. Over.”

The Elvy team laughs and – despite the protests – proceeds to do their overtaking. But it doesn't quite go as planned. The hulls come too close and bump into each other's sides. Thankfully, it's just an exercise that can be easily resumed. But soon a new challenge approaches – and another meeting. The vessel belonging to the other team needs to pass between Elvy and the skerry – without colliding or going aground. But the meeting takes place at far too short a distance and the ships touch each other. A far from unrealistic scenario, it turns out.

“This is very similar to an incident that actually happened in 2008 when a ferry ended up between a skerry and another boat. It ended with the ferry scraping into the skerry. The Swedish Transport Agency was actually here to use the simulator in order to understand what had gone wrong,” explains Mats.

And for the participants, the exercise seems to have brought valuable insights.

“It was valuable to see and take part in the training for real. It was both exciting, fun and difficult to drive the simulator! And we would never have managed it without the students who participated and guided us,” says Johanna Rantsi, Member of Swedish Parliament and on the Committee on Transport and Communications.

For high-quality maritime education – also in the future

The simulator exercise is rounded off and the visitors gather to, based on today's experiences, continue to talk about the current issues in maritime education and Swedish shipping.

“We had very good discussions about how to strengthen shipping to maintain Sweden’s important transport opportunities, but also about how to attract more people to the shipping profession. It was really great that the politicians also got to meet students from the sea captain education and test the simulators, as well as meet the teachers who are very important for the training to be as high-class as it is in Sweden today, says Carolina Kihlström.

And M-politician Johanna Rantsi agrees.

“Meeting and talking to students about their thoughts on the education and their own future in the industry was very rewarding. As well as getting to test the simulator and understand the complexities of running larger ships. It wasn't quite easy! Ship owners and teachers also participated during the visit, and the fact that we were many different roles gathered in the simulators gave good conversations based on broad perspectives from the industry," she says.

​Text: Lovisa Håkansson