IBIA CONVENTION 2025: Significant Seafarer Upskilling Needed for Green Fuels Transition

Angad Banga is chairman of the Caravel Group and the Hong Kong Shipowners Association. Image Credit: Ship & Bunker

Speakers gather today at the IBIA Annual Convention in Hong Kong warned of a widening skills gap and called for the rapid development of new training frameworks to prepare crews for alternative fuels.

Professor Lynn Loo, CEO of the GCMD, outlined how lessons from the organisation’s pilot projects are being turned into practical training material.

“We're not a training center, but what we have done is we've put together competency frameworks from our pilots and trials,” Loo said.

She noted that GCMD took safety learnings from its ammonia transfer trial in the Pilbara, from PPE requirements to the fuel’s behaviour and toxicity, and developed them into a competency framework.

Singapore Maritime Academy is now using that material to build training content, she added.

Moves to strengthen training are also taking shape elsewhere in the region.

“Hong Kong Shipowners Association announced the formation of the maritime talent cultivation alliance to build a resilient future-ready workforce,” Angad Banga, chairman of the Caravel Group and the Hong Kong Shipowners Association, said.

Hing Chao, chairman of the Hong Kong Chamber of Shipping and Wah Kwong Maritime Transport, argued that major seafaring nations must play a leading role.

“I see that as a fundamental responsibility for big seafaring nations like China, the Philippines and India, and from where I sit in China, a lot of work is starting to be done,” Chao said.

From the cruise sector’s perspective, Bud Darr, CEO of CLIA, said the existing STCW convention remains outdated.

The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification, and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) sets global training requirements, but it has yet to incorporate dedicated training for ammonia or hydrogen fuels.

“It tends to get reviewed about every 15 years or so, and one of the reasons it's not fit for purpose is that the process does not accommodate, whether you're talking about navigation technology or engineering technology or alternative fuel technology,” Darr said.