5 Online Soft Skills Courses For Maritime Professionals

Good grades won’t guarantee you a promising career.

You might have topped the class from a prestigious university, worked your a#@ off, aced the interview, and even worked with the best company in your field…

…And yet, you won’t be anywhere near to the professional success you think you deserve.

Why?

Because in today’s world, along with your hard skills your soft skills are equally important to get you a successful career.

According to a study, these days, more than 60% of employers look for soft skills while hiring. A majority even believe that soft skills can make or break a person’s career.

If you are one of those who think they deserve better in their professional life, then it’s time you start focusing on your soft skills.

Worry not, you are not alone and it’s not even your fault.

Blame it on our education system, these skills are never mentioned in the syllabus, forget about having dedicated classes for them.

Life at sea is challenging, both physically and mentally. And if you want to ace at your maritime job need to master the below five soft skills.

1. Communication
2. Leadership
3. Team management
4. Critical Thinking
5. Emotional Intelligence

Mastering or even enhancing these skills will work wonders to fast track your career.

Let’s take a look at some of the best online courses which can help you master these skills.

1. Effective Communication

According to a study conducted by the National Association of Colleges and Employers, a staggering 73.4% of employers want a candidate who has strong communication skills.

Several research papers have concluded that communication skills are more important than IQ and creativity.

In the maritime industry, communication skills are even more important, considering the industry is extremely global with people from different parts of the world working together.

If you are working on a ship, the crew members are often from different countries and maintaining effective communication with them is highly important to ensure efficient deligation of work, avoid misunderstandings, and maintaining a healthy working environment.

Ever found it difficult to express yourself properly to your seniors or juniors for that matter, or to a representative of a company? Well.. you are not alone!

But the good news is there is an amazing online course that can help you with this problem.

The Complete Communication Skills Masterclass For Life is an online course that can help you with enhancing your communication skills.

This course will help you to –

• Speak and communicate with authority
• Be comfortable and confident while talking, whether to a group of people or a big audience.
• Communicate with clarity and calmness

Enhancing your communication skills will not only help you to explain yourself better but also help in improving your leadership skills by leaps and bounds.

This course includes

• 29 hours on-demand video
• 5 downloadable resources
• Full lifetime access
• Access on mobile and TV
• Certificate of Completion

Know more about the Complete Communication Skills Masterclass For Life Course

2. Practical leadership

Life on a ship is challenging even to the most confident and skilful people. The environment onboard tends to push one’s mental and physical boundaries.

Considering the type of surrounding where physical harm or even death can happen because of accidents, leadership and teamwork are two extremely important skills that seafarers must possess.

Now, there are plenty of books, courses and articles already out there which explain the theoretical aspects of leadership. However, when it comes to the practical implementation of these teachings, most of them fall short.

However, there is one online course which though not perfect, does a way better job than others in teaching practical aspects of leadership.

“The Practical Leadership Skills” is a course which deals with two main aspects – leadership and teamwork. It teaches not only to lead from the front but also how to delegate effectively to empower your team.

If you have ever dealt with issues such as

• Decision making
• Confidently delegating tasks
• Lead a team effectively
• Maintain a healthy and happy working environment

..then this course would definitely help you.

Irrespective of whether you are a leader or just a team member, this course will assist you to better deal with any situation and motivate you to be an excellent team player.

This course includes:

• 2.5 hours on-demand video
• 16 downloadable resources
• Full lifetime access
• Access on mobile and TV
• Certificate of Completion

Know more about The Practical Leadership Skills Course

3. Team management

Team management is important in every field, but when it comes to working on ships, it is of very high importance.

For maritime professionals, there are three important aspects when at sea – avoiding conflicts, staying motivated, and improving work processes. Needless to say, high performing teams are of utmost importance on ships.

However, quite often seafarers have to deal with issues such as

• ego clashes
• language and culture barriers
• monotony
• homesickness
• mental and physical stress

..among several others.

In such working conditions, it is important that the onboard crew is motivated as a team having similar attitude, preferences and approach to work together for a common goal.

If you want to enhance your team management skills, then the course “Management skills: New manager training in essential skills” is highly recommended.

This course includes

• 11 hours on-demand video
• 13 articles
• 26 downloadable resources
• Full lifetime access
• Access on mobile and TV
• Certificate of Completion

Know more about the Management skills: New manager training in essential skills course

4 . Critical thinking

At sea each crew member has to be resourceful, there is no argument about it.

In situations when both time and resources are less, critical thinking is extremely important as it helps individuals to diagnose and identify problems effectively and work on the solutions immediately.

With critical thinking skills, maritime professionals don’t have to rely only on conventional problem-solving techniques but look for different approaches to identify and solve problems.

To be a better problem solver on board ships, it is important to master one’s cognitive biases.

Cognitive biases are a systematic error in our thinking capability which affects our decisions and judgements.

Mastering ones cognitive biases is an important aspect of critical thinking to understand its influence on our decision-making skills especially at work.

“Master Cognitive Biases and Improve Your Critical Thinking” is an excellent online course that deals with “debiasing” techniques that can help in improving the quality of thinking and decision making of maritime professionals.

If you want to be better at handling emergencies and become an A-grade problem solver, then learning critical thinking is a must and this course is one of the finest out there.

This course includes

• 2.5 hours on-demand video
• 1 article
• Full lifetime access
• Access on mobile and TV
• Certificate of Completion

Know more about the Master Cognitive Biases and Improve Your Critical Thinking course

5. Emotional Intelligence

Last but most important, if you have all the best qualities to succeed but don’t know how to manage your emotions then it would still be a difficult situation for you in any workplace.

Emotional intelligence is the ability to recognise emotions in ourselves and others. Most of the people, even at the workplace, act out of “gut” reaction, which is a sign of low EQ.

It is extremely important in workplaces such as ships wherein collaboration among team members is mandatory. Having a better interpersonal relationship with team members at work will not only help in a better and happier working environment but also equip you with important skills to deal with sticky situations and difficult people.

There have been many studies that have proved that Emotional Intelligence (EQ) is more important than Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

If you want to not just succeed at work but improve your relationships as well, then the course “Emotional Intelligence at work: Learning from your emotions” will help you a lot.

In today’s competitive world, it is important to prove oneself at work and stand out in a crowd. Without understanding your EQ and how it will help in improving your professional relationships, you will be missing out on one of the most important ways to take your career to great heights.

If emotions have been a reason for the lack of professional growth, then this course will be very helpful in a variety of ways.

This course includes:

• 1-hour on-demand video
• 8 downloadable resources
• Full lifetime access
• Access on mobile and TV
• Certificate of Completion

Know more about the Emotional Intelligence at work: Learning from your emotions course

In this competitive world wherein excelling in academics is highly important, soft skills are often neglected by the education system. But the fact remains that without these important skills, even the most academically superior person would lag behind in the race to reach the top.

Therefore, invest time and resources in these skills and observe how your career scales new height.

Over to you..

Do you know any other soft skill which is important for maritime professionals?

Let’s know in the comments below.

You may also like to read –

• Marine Teaching Profession – Getting A Much-Needed Face-Lift
• 10 Best Online Entrepreneurship Courses For Mariners
• Maritime Examinations & Courses – Are They Worth the Moolah ?

Disclaimer: The authors’ views expressed in this article do not necessarily reflect the views of Marine Insight. Data and charts, if used, in the article have been sourced from available information and have not been authenticated by any statutory authority. The author and Marine Insight do not claim it to be accurate nor accept any responsibility for the same. The views constitute only the opinions and do not constitute any guidelines or recommendation on any course of action to be followed by the reader.

The article or images cannot be reproduced, copied, shared or used in any form without the permission of the author and Marine Insight.

About Author

Raunek Kantharia is a marine engineer turned maritime writer and entrepreneur. After a brief stint at the sea, he founded Marine Insight in 2010. Apart from managing Marine Insight, he also writes for a number of maritime magazines and websites.

Read more articles by this author

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