With safety incidents on the rise across the maritime sector, Mintra, a global leader in digital learning and human capital management, has issued a stark warning: failing to address the gap between training and true competency is putting lives and livelihoods at risk.
The alert follows a recent DNV report that revealed a 42% rise in maritime incidents between 2018 and 2024, with machinery failures accounting for 60% of all casualties in the most recent year. Critically, 52% of all incidents now involve vessels over 20 years old, underscoring how ageing infrastructure and outdated skills are converging to threaten operational safety.
“Training alone is not enough. Competence means knowing how to act when the pressure is on,” said Erle Kristen Wagle, Mintra’s Director of Maritime Strategy, who addressed the issue at the recent Spinnaker Maritime People & Culture Conference. “Safety depends not just on compliance, but on confidence—and that requires ongoing, verifiable assessment.”
Mintra’s Trainingportal Competency Management System is a digital platform designed for high-risk sectors where procedural failure can lead to injury, environmental harm, or fatalities. Already supporting over 2.8 million users globally, it goes beyond one-time learning to offer continuous upskilling, real-time assessment, and team-based simulation training, ensuring workers can apply their knowledge safely under real-world conditions.
In safety-critical environments like offshore energy, shipping, and heavy industry, digital upskilling is rapidly becoming a core risk mitigation strategy. Traditional training infrastructure cannot scale to meet demand: with nearly 800,000 seafarers and offshore workers requiring upskilling, physical courses alone are insufficient to meet the demand. Cloud-based learning platforms offer 24/7 access, audit-ready tracking, and built-in flexibility.
“Incidents aren’t just caused by old hardware; they’re also caused by outdated human practices. A lack of competence is a safety risk that no company can afford to ignore,” said Wagle.
Mintra’s course portfolio comprises over 2,600 titles, many of which are certified by industry bodies, including DNV, OPITO, IOSH, ECITB, and the Norwegian Maritime Authority. The platform issues a new certificate every 27 seconds, enabling safety officers and compliance managers to maintain up-to-date records and respond swiftly to regulatory changes.
As sectors face rising geopolitical tensions, environmental legislation, and a changing energy mix, Mintra is urging safety leaders to embed digital competence as a core pillar of their safety strategy.
“You cannot isolate compliance from human behaviour,” Wagle added. “If we want fewer accidents, lower downtime, and a truly safe culture, we must close the competence gap now.”
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