What is it?

2012 marks the 150^th anniversary of the founding of the Plymouth School of Navigation, which provided vocational education to merchant seamen of the Victorian era. Thanks to the Marine Navigation Centre, that legacy of training and development is delivered to a new generation of professional seafarers through modern, state-of-the-art facilities.

With its combination of dedicated systems and flexible teaching space, the Marine Navigation Centre aims to meet the needs of the maritime world—from learning how to navigate super tanks or super yachts, to providing professional development courses tailored to specific organisations. The University already delivers contracts to international shipping companies and marine support organisations, which when couple with its water-borne assets and proximity to the sea, provide a first-class combination for education.

What does it offer to businesses?

• The Ship Simulator offers a Full Mission Bridge simulator with 270-degree screen and realistic control consoles.

• Two advanced ship simulators, and six desktop ship simulators—which can be used independently of each other or in unison.

• The ability to generate 30 virtual vessels in a single environment and provide user-control to nine of them.

• 20 type-approved Electronic Chart Display and Information Systems (ECDIS) workstations and nine type-approved RADAR systems.

• The ECDIS Lab provides the capacity for training professional seafarers in the correct use of modern electronic chart systems which are becoming mandatory for use on all commercial vessels.

• The Chart Room with its flexible teaching space which can also be used for practising 'traditional' navigation using paper charts.

• The CAD Modelling facility where new visual scenes are created for use in the Transas system. This makes it possible to trial the safe navigation of various types of vessel into new port developments and—of increasing importance to shipping companies—around the deployment of next generation marine renewable devices, such as wave energy machines.

Want to know more?

If you have any questions about the various facilities within the Marine Navigation Centre, get in touch with Enterprise Solutions at Plymouth University on 0800 052 5600 or email enterprisesolutions@plymouth.ac.uk, and they can put you in touch with the relevant contact.