By Zeny C. Rabina

Training is a way to uplift or enhance the knowledge and skills of certain individuals. It is not only the concept of merely passing the training, but rather it is the acquisition and application of these basic skills that an individual should put into his mind.

Proficiency in this particular skills is not only a requirement but a tool that may make or undo especially as seafarer. Knowledge and expertise in this field may define the dividing line between theory and shipboard experience.

Seamen are required to have proper and extensive training ashore and aboard a vessel for a complete knowledge and correct response.

Every year, lives are lost and millions of dollars worth of damages are caused by fires on ships. Human error is by far the most common causes of fires. It is often a single careless act that endangers the lives of all crew and the shipowner’s property. This brief factual accounts of fires which occured in several types of vessel illustrate some of the risks. Every member of the crew has a part to play in preventing fires and this applies not only to firefighting methods.

Always take a long critical look at your ship.

Is there any place where failure or malfunction could bring disaster? The danger spots are machinery, accommodation and cargo spaces.

Unfortunately, sometimes, because of lack of knowledge, training and experience, the unexpected situations often result in huge losses and tragedies.

“PREVENTION IS THE REMEDY”

For those of you who didn’t know, our company was formerly known as JEU INTERNATIONAL SHIPMANAGEMENT, INC. and is an already existing manning agency business before it was purchased from it’s previous owner. A few months ago, our application for a change of name was finally approved with the proper government agency and NOTRE DAME OILFIELDS MARITIME SERVICES, INC. was officially born. Since it is a tradition here in the Philippines, and I’m sure in many parts of the world, to celebrate everything that is new, a Blessing of our New Company Name was held last July 19th, 2008 followed by a luncheon. The event was attended by the officers of the board, the staff, business partners, relatives and friends.

NOTRE DAME OILFIELDS MARITIME SERVICES, INC. is duly licensed by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration or POEA to recruit and deploy highly qualified and competent Filipino seafarers for various kinds of vessels such as Conventional Vessels, Tankers, Storage Tankers, Passenger-Cruise Ships, AHTS, Supply Boats and Tug Boats.

Hi everybody! Welcome to our company blog. We’re pretty excited about this new endeavor and are looking forward to engaging current and potential customers through this format.

Chances are, you’ve already browsed through our website or are already familiar with our services, so we won’t go into those details in this welcome post. If you haven’t already, you can go to the Profile section of our website to find out who we are.

So, what’s this blog about and why have we created it?

Our first goal is to provide another channel for our current clients to access and communicate with us. We think our clients might be interested in hearing about our services, learn more about the people behind Notre Dame Oilfields Maritime Services, Inc. whom they’re working with, and in general, keep them up to date with news that’s relevant to our partnerships.

Our second goal is to engage potential customers or others who may be interested/curious about the ship crewing and manning services that we provide.

Within these blog posts: 1) we hope to share our insights on quality ship management, quality crewing service and provision of shipboard personnel, 2) our thoughts on maritime outsourcing trends or business developments in the Philippines (where we’re based), 3) and who we are, such as staff and training.

This is just a flavor of things to come – and we’re sure that this list of topics will grow since our goal is to help you make your business more profitable, for less.

We hope that you find our posts both interesting and useful. So, again… welcome!