The growing presence of ALAM in the maritime industry surpasses beyond its academic achievement. Today, ALAM is also renowned as a centre of excellence for research and development work. ALAM has signed MOUs with a number of reputable global institutions including the United States Merchant Marine Academy, CRYOSTAR France and Korea Maritime Uni ver sity. Recently, the Academy has also been engaged by International Islamic University Malaysia as their research partner in Maritime Research and Development. ALAM’s strong focus on holistic training and development is acknowledged by various maritime leading organisations with accreditation as an offshore safety centre from Offshore Petroleum Industry Training Organisation (OPITO) and Lloyd’s Register as an approved training provider. During the year under review, ALAM was commi s s i oned t o conduc t real-time ship simulation for PFLNG2 for PETRONAS. ALAM had also launched the Chemical e-Learning programme in collaboration with American Bureau of Shipping (ABS). These collaborations are just a few of the many partnerships that ALAM has built and nurtured over the years. 2014 saw ALAM mark another milestone in its growth and evolution, as ALAM played host to member s of the maritime fraternity from all around the globe at the Annual Global Maritime Education and Training Association’s (GlobalMET) conference. GlobalMET is a conglomerate of international training institutions which has been at the forefront in pushing for enhancements o f s e a f a r e r t r a i n i ng s i n c e i t s establishment in 1996. This gathering had given prominence to ALAM in the MET industry, and to lift further the Academy’s reputable status amongst the maritime community from all around the world. Amongst the challenges faced by ALAM is the poaching of trainers by the MET industry at large. With ease of establishing MET centres here in Malaysia, be it local or foreign institutions, the demand for trainers has increased making it important to retain highly qualified and capable trainer s. In addition, the bigger challenge is the renewal of the concession agreement of ALAM under Malaysian Maritime Academy Sdn. Bhd. (MMASB) with “Unit Kerjasama Awam Swasta Jabatan Perdana Menteri (UKAS)” which will expire by the end of 2016. MMASB has applied for the extension of the concession agreement in the hope that further investment can be made including growing its portfolio of courses, to further cement ALAM’s position as the premier maritime training institution. As the maritime industry become more sophisticated and increasingly more s t r i ngen t i n t he i r r equ i r emen t , maintaining a sufficient pool of qualified and experienced seafarers will be a priority for all market participants. In view of these high expectations, together with ALAM’s capabilities in nurturing professional maritime leaders that will face the ever-changing needs of the industry, ALAM is set to position itself as the regional and global nerve centre for training excellence for aspiring cadets as well as the grooming of future leaders for shipping organisations, Oil & Gas corporations and related government agencies worldwide. p 73 MISC BERHAD - Annual Report 2014
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