Since its launch on 4 June earlier this year, the MARPOL Annex V e-learning course has surpassed over 2,200 enrolments in just four months, with 1857 participants successfully completing the course, making it one of the most popular courses freely available on the IMO e-Learning portal.
The course is available in English with versions in French and Spanish being developed.
IMO has drafted a number of e-Learning courses with the purpose of increasing the capacity of Member States to effectively implement IMO instruments. The MARPOL Annex V e-learning course was set up to help strengthen the global response to marine plastic litter from sea-based sources and to support effective implementation of the International Convention for the Prevention of Pollution from Ships (MARPOL), Annex V.
The OceanLitter Programme at IMO partnered with World Maritime University (WMU) to design this e‑learning course, ensuring that it meets contemporary training requirements in the maritime sector. The course combines animated modules and practical, scenario-based questions to provide an effective learning pathway in a self-paced learning mode.
By enhancing awareness and capacity among key stakeholders, the course aims to help reduce the discharge of garbage at sea, ensure better compliance with international regulations and support the achievement of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 14 (SDG 14 - Life Below Water).
A significant number of participants enrolled on the course have come from private shipping and transportation companies. With the course freely available online it is hoped that further maritime companies will require their crew to take on the training course, integrating the modules into their compliance training.
