Maritime education and training
In Belgium, you can have maritime training courses in secondary, adult and higher education. In addition, public education institutions and private training institutions also offer maritime training courses.
Approved training courses
Maritime training courses must be approved by the department 'Recognition of Institutions' of the Directorate-General Shipping of the FPS Mobility and Transport. Besides Belgian training institutions, some foreign ones are also recognised.
A recognised institution may issue a Belgian STCW training certificate. STCW stands for ‘Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping’. The certificate attests to a specific competence or forms the basis for a certificate of competency. You can also apply for a Belgian certificate with a foreign recognition.
Here you can find the list of recognised Belgian training centres, the recognised foreign training centres and an address list of all recognised centres.
Recognition procedure
A maritime training institution wishing to organise theoretical and/or practical training under STCW must apply for recognition via an email sent to: els.huysmans@mobilit.fgov.be
Please provide the following information:
- overview of the training path for which you are applying for approval
- determination of the target group
- the curriculum
- list of handbooks or teaching aids
- location where courses will take place
- description of the infrastructure related to teaching and examining
- how evaluations will be carried out
- example of certificate issued on positive completion
- overview of teachers and instructors and their qualifications
- a copy of the ISO certificate or other valid quality management system
- a copy of the report of the last internal audit
- a copy of the report of the last external audit conducted by a certified company
- if a simulator is used during training, you must demonstrate that it meets the requirements laid down in section A I/12 of the STCW Code.
Once approved, a date will be set for an initial on-site audit.
Conduct of the audit
Three main pillars are checked during the audit:
- Verification of documents
For application purposes, the quality management system certificate (ISO 9001:2015) is sufficient. On site, we verify the actual situation and the quality assurance system. - Verification of infrastructure
We verify on site whether the infrastructure is sufficient to provide the training. - On-board training
We verify that the proposed training programme complies with the provisions of the STCW 95 Code.
This is followed by an evaluation interview, after which you receive a report.
Issue of recognition
After the audit, you can get a temporary recognition for, say, six months. A new audit with positive evaluation will lead to a five-year recognition. In case of a very positive initial audit, it may be decided to immediately issue a five-year recognition.
If the institution does not comply with the set requirements, the recognition will be refused.
Annual follow-up audits
It is necessary to regularly re-audit recognised institutions:
- to guarantee continued high quality
- to monitor that approved training courses continue to meet STCW standards
- to check the implementation of the latest regulations
An on-site audit takes place every year with a different focus each time.
This allows to examine all aspects in depth in a five-year span.
The audits follow an annual schedule. Additional audits can always be added to the schedule if necessary.
Every five years, all audit reports must be transferred to the European Commission.
Withdrawal of approval or recognition
A major deficiency can lead to the withdrawal of the approval of the training course or to the withdrawal of the recognition of the entire institution. For the general withdrawal of the recognition of the institution, a file is prepared and submitted to the competent minister who takes the final decision.
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