VIDEOTEL MARINE INTERNATIONAL TOTS

INTERTANKO TANKER OFFICER TRAINING STANDARDS (TOTS)

TOTS - Tanker Officer Training Standards – is intended to provide the tanker industry with a standard for tanker officer competences, onboard and shore training, “time in rank” and “time with company”, and also to ease the problems and difficulties that tanker owners are encountering with the different “officer matrix” requirements of certain charterers, TOTS also aims to address the current trend of increasing accidents on tankers.

INTERTANKO’s Tanker Officer Training Standards (TOTS) system aims to provide a coordinated response by INTERTANKO by establishing a set of voluntary Tanker Officer Training Standards for INTERTANKO members, which, when complied with, will ensure tanker officers’ competence for general shipboard operations, as well as those for specific tanker types such as crude, product and chemical tankers. The aim is that this will be accepted as the norm of a competent tanker officer and provide alternative measuring tools to “sea time” or “calendar years” for both “time in rank” and "time with the company”. The TOTS system aims to provide a level of comfort to those oil companies that utilise officer matrix requirements, and will ease compliance with them.

It is important to understand that TOTS is a voluntary system, and it is up to each individual company to decide which of their officers should, or needs to, undertake the training in the TOTS system. However, if a company has an experienced senior officer, both in rank and with the company, that meets charterers' requirements; has demonstrated to the company from his past and current experience that he has the levels of knowledge and safety compliance required; then there will be less value in that officer undertaking the TOTS training system.

The TOTS system specifically aims its efforts at:

• New junior officers;
• Existing junior officers aspiring to senior officer positions;
• Newly promoted officers
• Officers which are new to the company (specifically module 1D “Time with Company”).

Videotel can help Users Group Members to demonstrate (though authorised IACS audits, see below) that their systems already comply with, or exceed, TOTS standards or help them to implement TOTS from scratch if they wish to do so.

Videotel contact for TOTS is Captain Milind Karkhanis.

VIDEOTEL USERS’ GROUP

Within the Videotel Users Group, shipowners and ship managers with tankers are interested in finding out more about the TOTS scheme and how it might affect them. TOTS complements STCW, it does not replace it. It is specifically designed to be useful to owners and operators when addressing officer matrix related matters with charterers,

VIDEOTEL TRAINING PACKAGES AND COURSES

Videotel video-led packages, interactive programmes, CBT and courses help officers to acquire the knowledge and skills to reach the required standards. TOTS is a way of measuring and recording when a standard has been reached.

TOTS AND STCW

TOTS raises the bar above the minimum STCW standards and consists of four elements:

1. TOTS Training Record Books:
2. TOTS Computer Based Assessment (CBA)
3. TOTS Company Verification (CBA)
4. TOTS Ship Specific Practical Simulator Verification/Training, which is Tanker Type Specific

The record books and Computer Based Assessments (CBAs) are available from INTERTANKO’S publishers www.marlins.co.uk but INTERTANKO is currently working towards enabling “none exclusive” licensing of the TOTS product to third parties for owners to use in electronic format and will provide details of this once this aspect is available.

THE PRESENT POSITION

Most Videotel Users Group members already have staff development training and competency schemes. Videotel Marine International’s Continuing Competency Management and Fleet Training Administrator systems are examples of this and all Users Group members are using Videotel’s high quality approved training packages with built-in tests and assessments.

QUESTION FROM USERS TO INTERTANKO (AND VIDEOTEL)

How can I implement TOTS if:

• My company already has an Officer Training system
• My company meets some elements of the TOTS system
• My company has no officer training system

ANSWER

INTERTANKO has licensed members of IACS to audit tanker company schemes against the TOTS standard to verify that a tanker owner’s or manager’s own "tanker officer competence training system" either:

1. complies fully with the various elements of the TOTS standard elements;

 or

 2. to undertake a gap analysis of that companies "tanker officer competency training system" against the various elements the TOTS standard elements.

Videotel Marine International

To help Videotel Users, we have asked Warsash Maritime Centre to identify which Videotel training packages match particular TOTS standards. This information will be made available to Users.

NOTE:

• Videotel Marine International is an Associate member of INTERTANKO.
• TOTS is approved as a professional standard by:
• The Nautical Institute.
• The Institute of Marine Engineering Science & Technology.