Delivering Maritime Excellence in East Africa

City of Glasgow College has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with Kenya’s Bandari Maritime Academy (BMA) on Thursday 15 July.

The college will support the academy’s ambition to become a Maritime Centre of Excellence, helping to create and deliver maritime educational programmes.

Paul Little, Principal and Chief Executive at City of Glasgow College, said:

“We are delighted to formally acknowledge this new partnership with Bandari Maritime Academy. Our Faculty of Nautical and STEM has strong business links across Africa, Asia and the Americas, specifically in providing academic qualifications and mandatory safety training for marine industry professionals. We’re proud to now be working with Bandari to help deliver relevant, high quality training to a new generation of seafarers.”

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) officially establishes a strong link between the two institutions. As well as helping to write courses and develop teaching materials, joint activity will include seminars, workshops, collaborative research, and the certification of training programmes for students, faculties and industry.

Commenting on the MOU, Francis Muraya the Ag. Chief Executive Officer of Bandari Maritime Academy said the objectives of the MOU also include a mutual exchange of maritime students, the development of a maritime internship, and collaboration in maritime and educational research projects in the longer term. He added:

“We are very pleased to establish this relationship with City of Glasgow College. Their wealth of expertise and knowledge will help us achieve our ambition to meet our country’s growing skills demand within the maritime sector. We look forward to working and collaborating with the college at this exciting stage in our Academy’s development.”

A maritime faculty exchange programme will also enable visiting lecturers to deliver in person or online courses to each institution, in line with applicable accreditation and legal requirements.

Witnessing the event, Nancy Karigithu, Principal Secretary of the State Department for Shipping and Maritime, reiterated the State commitment to promotion of Kenya’s maritime and shipping industry and to oversee human resource development, management, and research in support of the sector. She said:

“The Government of Kenya has identified the Blue Economy as one of the areas with a high potential to generate massive employment for Kenyans, especially the youth. It is a priority for us that the youth be assisted to attain the skills and competencies necessary to enable them to benefit from the job opportunities available in the local and international maritime sector.”

Bandari Maritime Academy is based in Mombasa which lies on the southeast coast of Kenya along the Indian Ocean. It was originally established in 1980 as Bandari College, a training and staff development institution for the Kenya Ports Authority.