INNOVATIVE training programmes created by the faculty of the Singapore Maritime Academy (SMA) can take its trainees on learning stints to places as diverse as a luxury cruise ship and the 10,000 km long Trans Siberia Railway.

The luxury cruise liner SuperStar Virgo has been like a floating campus for a select group of first-year students of Singapore Polytechnic's maritime academy.

The SMA collaborated with Malaysian cruise operator Star Cruises for its 'maritime experiential' (MEL) camps to instill a sense of reality in its teaching programme.

Dubbed 'MEL Aboard', its primary aim is to provide a relevant and dynamic shipboard learning environment. Six four-day, three-night sessions have been held so far.

While the shipboard training camp provides real-life exposure on board a commercial vessel, the 'fun' in learning has not escaped the attention of SMA students, who see this as another interesting teaching method by the academy that attracts good students to embark on a maritime career.

For the SMA, the cruise ship stint also promotes 'student-student' and 'student-staff' bonding that could help lead to a strong alumni networking after graduation. Such collaboration with the industry also helps the academy remain relevant in its teaching methods and courses, said senior lecturer Capt F J Francis.

The onboard sessions while the liner sails the busy Malacca Strait include an environmental management course that looks at the vessel's desalination plant, garbage disposal and waste treatment and even sewage plants.

Shipboard operations like housekeeping, commercial catering and security and navigational safety are also covered. The camp even touches on social grace, fine dining etiquette and a talk on living responsibly.

All this while the SuperStar Virgo goes on a full voyage calling at ports in Penang and Phuket and at times the resort island of Langkawi.

SMA faculty and external training consultants are involved in the training and prominent shipping personalities are invited to talk to the students on the industry and the merits of a maritime sector career.  

Another of the experiential training programmes of the academy involves sending a group of students to Vladivostok in Russia for the International Festival of Maritime Universities. The festival is themed 'Young Captains of the World Ocean'.

To enhance the educational value, the SMA sent its team on the Trans-Siberian railway (TSR) - a round trip from Vladivostok to Blagoveshchensk at the other end of the continent. "This historic railway system is often used as a landbridge to transport cargo from Europe to the Far East and vice-versa. The journey will expose our students to real life multimodal transportation," said Capt Francis.

This too promotes bonding with international students and teachers, helping them build strong, international maritime networking and understanding, he added, explaining the virtues of such activities thought up by the academy. "Further, the Trans-Siberian Railway trip will expose our students to real-life logistics and multi-modal transportation at the Port of Vladivostok, off-dock depots, including a short stay at the township of Blagoveshchensk and a cruise down the Amur river which borders China.

"The Young Captains of the World Ocean event also helps build teamwork, discipline and mental strength in physical and intellectual competition," he added.

The landbridge

The TSR is a network of railways which connects Moscow and European Russia with the Russian Far East provinces, Mongolia, China and the Sea of Japan. It is the longest railway in the world, covering about 10,000 km, crossing 10 time zones and taking about seven days to compete the entire journey (from Vladivostok to Moscow). It passes through 87 cities and towns on the way and crosses 16 big rivers, the Volga, Ob, Enisey, Oka, Amur, and others.

The Trans-Siberian Railway is often used as a landbridge to transport cargo from Europe to Far East and vice-versa. The 'landbridge' is a generic term in shipping, meaning the use of land freight as a means of transport connection.

The landbridge is a way of transporting cargo from a port or an inland point of origin in the shipper's country to an inland point or a port of final destination in the consignee's country using a combination of usually sea and land, or air and land, or air, land and sea transports, instead of relying fully on journey by water or air, using a multi-modal transport document known as through bill of lading or combined transport bill of lading.

The landbridge system gives our students an idea as to how the container shipping sector can use transportation on land, as part of its package to its shipping customers instead of seeing land transport as a threat to the shipping industry.