1. Introduction

The Norwegian Maritime Authority is developing a system that issues personal maritime certificates automatically (APS).

The former arrangement where training and education were reported manually will not work with the new system.

Moreover, manual reporting has been a source of error.

Consequently, a need arose to create a new way of reporting completed education and training.

2. Consultation

The proposed amendments were circulated for review on 9 October 2020 with a deadline for comments on 8 January 2021. We received nine consultative comments by the deadline.

The Norwegian Fishermen's Association supports the proposal and states that the amendment will ease the certificate application process for seafarers and fishermen.

The Norwegian coastal ship owners welcome the proposal and emphasise the importance of a new system to use the same methods.

The other consultative bodies had no comments to the proposed amendments.

3. Further details on the regulatory amendments

As a part of the APS, the Norwegian Maritime Authority is developing a simple method for automatic reporting of education via a public data interface (machine-to-machine). The institutions must develop a method of connecting to the NMA's system.

This can be done either with an independently developed connection, or through development and cooperation with other institutions. Reporting may also be done through a third-party portal.

It should be easy for educational institutions to develop the software required to automatically report results, due to the fact that the main responsibility for the development of the system lies with the NMA.

The change implies that there will be no more manual verification of results since the results will be transferred electronically directly from the educational institution to the NMA.

The change will also help the educational institutions start using the same method to report completed education and training.

This will ensure a more equal treatment of the applicants for certificates and qualification documents.

The NMA requests all institutions to connect to the data interface and start reporting automatically as from 1 June 2021.

4. Economic and administrative consequenses

The requirement in the amensments to section 17 of the Regulations on qualifications and certificates for seafarers entails some development to be done by the educational institutions in order to make the connection work.

One educational institution has reported to the NMA that they estimate that it will take approximately one week of work to connect to our automatic reporting system.

Needless to say, this will vary from one institution to the next depending on the level of cooperation between different institutions and the access to developers.

Still, this indicates that the task i neither complex nor vast.

A limited amount of maintenance might be required.

There will be positive socio-economic consequenses since the change enables institutions to spend less time on case handling and administration of education and training reporting.

Furthermore, the NMA will not have to investigate errors in the reporting or verify correct education.