The Alaska Marine Safety Association (AMSEA) is well known in the maritime community for being committed to improving wellbeing on the water for both recreational and commercial boaters. The Marine Safety Instructor Training (MSIT) course is the Association’s premier train-the-trainer course designed to train future instructors to effectively teach cold water survival techniques, use of marine safety equipment, and to conduct onboard safety drills. The MSIT course is an intensive experience taking 48 hours over six and a half days to complete.
About the Alaska Marine Safety Association (AMSEA)
AMSEA is nonprofit corporation identified by the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) as a public charity under IRS Code 501(c) 3, dedicated to providing information and training that addresses cold water safety. The Association is known for its practical hands-on training style.
Since AMSEA began in 1985, the group has trained 975 marine safety instructors and over 400 teachers from across the United States who have gone on to provide cold water safety training to more than 200,000 people ranging from school children to commercial fishermen.
AMSEA’s Mission Statement is, “To reduce injury and death in the marine and fresh water environment through education and training provided by a network of qualified marine safety instructors.”
Subject Matter Covered in the Marine Safety Instructor Training
These are some of the cold water safety topics covered by AMSEA in its train the trainer course:
- Preparing for Emergencies – Use of the “Seven Steps to Survival” and role of preparation in survival situations
- Cold Water Survival – Use of personal flotation devices and survival techniques
- Sea Survival – Hands on demonstration of marine safety equipment, emergency drill procedures and vessel stability
- Land Survival – Shore based techniques for surviving the northern environment
- Food and Water – An examination of the importance of water and food for survival
- Cold Water Near Drowning – A review of the latest guidelines for responding to drowning in cold water
- Hypothermia – Prevention, recognition and treatment options for hypothermia
- Methods of Instruction – Ways to teach marine safety, development of lesson plans and learning styles
- Risk Assessment and Management – Evaluation of risk assessment, perception and tolerance
- Cross-Cultural Communications – A discussion of how communications can become garbled between cultural groups
- Overnight Survival Exercise – A chance to use skills presented in the course on an overnight field trip
Benefits of Successful MSIT Completion
There are a number of benefits available to future instructors that complete this U.S. Coast Guard approved course:
- Sea time needed for U.S. Coast Guard licensure
- Continuing education credits for Emergency Medical Technicians
- Certification meeting requirements for documented fishing vessels as a fishing vessel drill instructor
- Three 500-level college credits through the University of Alaska Southeast for an added fee
- Credit for completing “special professional training or experience that relates directly to the contingencies listed in 46 CFR 28.270 (a) including experience as an instructor, or training received in instructional methods.”
- The opportunity to become a marine safety instructor accepted by the U.S. Coast Guard with access to AMSEA’s training equipment and library
- STCW Train the Trainer certification for an additional fee and an additional half-day of instruction
Boaters should consider taking an AMSEA courses if one is offered in their region. Water safety instructors would be well served to visit Sitka or Seward, Alaska and take the Marine Safety Instructor Training course.
First seen at Suite101.com
Copyright © 2010 by Alan Sorum
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