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We've launched English@Sea Plus, a new course aimed at improving English language skills at sea.

English@Sea Plus will help international seafarers improve their standards in reading, writing and listening in the world’s maritime language. The online course allows those who understand some English to communicate more effectively by taking learners from CEFR A1 or A2  (IELTS 2 or 3) to CEFR B1 towards B2 (IELTS 5 or 6).

Seafarers can prepare for IELTS or Marlins tests through this course. It can help them reach a level of English proficiency that enables them to sit the relevant STCW for career progression. It is more likely to assist those to get to officer level.

The importance of good language skills remains a priority for all those on board. All officers in charge of a watch must be comfortable with written and spoken English, while ratings must be able to follow orders given in English. In emergency situations, crew members need to be able to communicate in English with passengers or in the language of the passengers themselves.

English@Sea Plus is packed with audio-visual content, presented to allow students to learn flexibly. It will help students learn more about grammar, understand how sentences break down and give them greater freedom to describe their experiences, dreams, hopes and ambitions.

Marine Society’s Digital Products Manager Iffaf Khan said, “English is the primary language on almost all vessels and effective communication is of vital importance.  I believe that this course will give seafarers the opportunity to build their confidence when communicating with either ratings or officers.”

For more information about English@Sea Plus or the Marine Society’s beginner's English course, please go to marine-society.org/learnatsea

To celebrate 264 years of Marine Society and Day of the Seafarer we bring you a testimonial from cadet Henry on how Learn@Sea has helped him develop during lockdown.

In April while the whole of the country was in lockdown and life was very bleak I received an email regarding courses available online through the Marine Society. Being a Sea Cadet and wanting to go into the navy in the future I thought it sounded very interesting. It gave me time away from home learning and a different focus but still learning at the same time.

Maths isn’t my strongest subject so I decided to sign up for maths@sea first. Having a nautical theme got me engaged straight away. I then tackled writing@sea which was again based around the nautical theme. I felt proud of being given this opportunity by The Marine Society to sign up for free through my local Sea Cadet unit, TS Eliza Adams, Wells-Next-The-Sea. The instant printable certificate was something to show off the achievement. It gave me a focus of still being involved with cadets while all face to face contact had stopped due to the Covid-19 outbreak. It helped to take my mind away from all of the things that had promptly stopped which I loved to do - Sea Cadets being a big part of my life. This made me want to look into the other courses available through the Marine Society.

Cadet Henry learning first aid at Wells-Next-The-Sea Sea Cadets.

Spreadshets@sea was another free course but I was a bit disappointed there was no printable certificate! For £2.99 I decided to sign up for the Geography@sea and I found this course fun. My favourite one out of the four.

I will certainly go and do further courses in the future through the Marine Society and would highly recommend to anyone who is either a seafarer or Sea Cadet

Ordinary Cadet Henry T.

Aged 14

Wells-Next-The-Sea Sea Cadets

On 29 May 1920, the SS Aeneas sailed for Australia with a library of 150 books on board. This was as a partnership between the pioneer of seafarer education, Albert Mansbridge of the newly established Seafarer Education Service and enlightened Liverpool ship-owner, Lawrence Holt of Alfred Holt and Company’s Blue Funnel Line.

Libraries on ships were not necessarily new and had been present on passenger ships since the late 18^th century. But this was a bold move to improve the welfare of seafarers by the man who lay the foundations of what would become the educational arm of the Marine Society.

In was a great success and natural history titles proved to be very popular. On the following voyage the number of books had increased to 200 and loans exceeded 1,000.  Within 10 years the provision of libraries had become universal within the British Merchant fleet with four hundred carrying SES libraries.  By the 1960s this number had increased to 600 ships.

The service continues today, 100 years later albeit in smaller numbers. Marine Society loan libraries still exist on National Oceanography and British Antarctic Survey ships but the majority of fleets have switched to non-returnable paperbacks and the newly launched digital library app.

The Marine Society digital library app is definitely the future for onboard libraries as seafarers can now download books to read on their phones or tablets. They can access thousands of books in the language of their choice to enjoy at leisure. After 100 years the Marine Society is still at the forefront of supplying libraries to ships.

We’ve granted £10,000 to Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society to be used towards the significant rise in applications for financial support associated with the COVID-19 crisis. In recognition of their vital work in conjunction with other maritime charities. We hope our contribution can go some way to sharing the burden on charities and helping seafarers through these troubling times.

Find out more about Shipwrecked Mariners' Society here.

Our award-winning Learn@Sea platform has just launched a new course called Stability@Sea, which covers all aspects of the buoyancy and stability of vessels. It is presented in bite-size topics. Content is user-friendly, combining technical diagrams, images and self-test exercises to check understanding.

You can download this course as an app on Android or iOS.

You can also download English@Sea, Maths@Sea, Maths@Sea Plus and Writing@Sea. We have a wide-range of courses from Modern Slavery to Media@Sea. For further information contact learning@ms-sc.org.