The Society for Intercultural Education, Training and Research - Houston
page 16
To submit an articles of Intercultural Interest, please contact Andrea Brooks.
Introduction
The design and the presentation of training programmes in other cultures is
fraught with pitfalls. Too often these programmes fail, not because of poor
instructional skills or inappropiate course content, but rather, due to a failure
to modify these methods and materials to match the trainees’ cultural
and perceptual framework.
People from various cultures perceive the world differently. For example Nigerian
farmers cannot recognise the drawing of a hoe (a farming tool they often
use) but see it as a man going down a lane (the long handle of the hoe) with
the curved parts of the blade representing the shoulders of the man.
These perceptions are based on basic values which can vary greatly among cultures. For example, consider the problem of taking a sea voyage with your spouse, your child and your mother. The ship starts to sink. You can save yourself and one other person. Who do you save? In the Western world, 60 per cent save the spouse, 40 per cent save the child and none save the mother. In the Eastern world, 100 per cent save the mother. The rationale being, one can always have another spouse and more children, but one can never have another mother! Obviously, then, the perceptions and the values of “Western” trainers and those of their ‘international” counterparts can be quite different. Trainers who fail to acknowledge this problem probably will not be successful outside their own culture.
Some years ago, the author was serving as a training consultant to a special Liquid Natural Gas (LNG) Project for Pertamina, the Indonesian Government’s oil and gas complex. One of the training issues that evolved concerned the training of navigational advisors to act as pilots on very large crude carriers (VLCCs) and ultra-large crude carriers (ULCCsI.
The need for training arose because of an Indonesian maritime regulation stipulating that such ships would have Indonesian pilots when they were in Indonesian waters. This regulation did not please the ships’ owners, the operators, nor the insurance companies, who were all of the opinion that Indonesia had no-one capable of piloting these huge vessels.
With the help of an experienced Indonesian counterpart, however, Pertamina was asked to identify potential candidates for this harbour pilotage assignment and to provide resumés of their background and training, their levels of experience, their language skills and their availability for travel abroad (i.e. political clearance).
Then in conjunction with representatives of Indonesia’s Maritime Commission and Pertamina, the ships’ owners, operators and insurance companies were invited to meet with us in Jakarta to resolve the issue. With this invitation, it was made clear that the Indonesian authorities would not contemplate any changes or exceptions to the regulations.
Although the Jakarta meeting confirmed that there were no Indonesian pilots at that time with sufficient experience to do the job, a number of viable candidates were found who could be trained to become Navigational Advisors for piloting the LNG VLCCs and ULCCs.
Representatives of the owners, operators and insurance companies were requested to review the resumés and to interview the candidates. They were also to provide us with the range of skills needed and the levels of competencies required for these candidates to be effective harbour pilots.
With input from all the participants, an eighteen month training design was developed. This design included advanced English language training, harbour familiarisation, model ship training, simulation training, fire and safety training, ship familiarisation, sea trial experience and training on existing LNG carriers operating elsewhere. It was understood that wherever possible, all such programmes would be culturally modified and adapted to best meet the learning/cultural needs of the candidates.
While the candidates spoke some English, the advanced English language training was necessary for several reasons. First, the Indonesian language, Bahasa Indonesia, does not possess an imperative verb form, which makes giving orders, in any language, an unaccustomed activity. In addition, this host language has no direct word for “no”. Further, ‘all on-board commands would be given in English. Thus, an intensive language training programme was established to provide the candidates with not only a greater command of English, but to afford multiple opportunities to give orders and to practice using the negative. The language training also helped to make the trainees more comfortable when using English, providing them with communication skills that enabled their off-shore training to be more effective.
Harbour familiarisation was not a complex task, as initially only one harbour was to be used and the first tug boat was already on site. Thus, the candidates could live at the job site and spend days on the tug noting special landmarks and features, mapping the coastline and charting the waters. This task was accomplished in several three-week sessions, scheduled at different times during the training programme.
On a lake in the French Alps, ouside the village of Vireville, in St. Pierre de Bressieux, there is the Port Revel training centre. Here, the trainees were introduced to model power ships that can hold up to three people. These ships are models of ULCCs and VLCCs and are designed to respond in much the same way as do their full-sized counterparts. By creating a mock-up of the Indonesian harbour on this lake, the candidates became knowledgeable as to how such ships would react and handle in real life.
In Holland, at the Netherlands Ship Model Basin in Wageningen, the candidates were trained on simulators that featured a full-size bridge and all of the ship’s operational controls, complete with a film/sound presentation that made it feel very much as if one were actually navigating a large ship into a harbour. Later, in the United States, the candidates took fire and safety courses that made them aware of the LNG’s volatility and the precautions that would need to be taken,
As LNG carriers were being constructed, the trainees had opportunities to visit the dock yards to gain some perspective of their size and features. When actual sea trials began, they were able to participate as on-board observers,
Arrangements were made to grant the candidates observer status on LNG carriers operating out of Japan. The experience of watching other pilots at work, noting the frigidity of the cargo, developing an awareness of the potential for explosion, acquiring sensory perceptions of the way in which such ships handle while in harbour and becoming increasingly familiar with docking procedures, was of inestimable value.
All five of the candidates, whose salaries and training were financed by Pertamina, completed the eighteen-month programme successfully. After trial runs, supervised by representatives from the owners, operators, insurance companies, and monitored by the Maritime agency and Pertamina, the candidates become professional Navigational Advisors, piloting LNG ships in Indonesian waters.
At this point, it may help to conclude this account of a successful international effort by reviewing it from a training perspective. A position requirement was established that had to meet a variety of demanding criteria. The ultimate criterion was for Indonesian harbour pilots to be able to navigate LNG carriers in Indonesian waters. As indicated previously, at the start of the programme no harbour pilots with the requisite experience/skills were available.
For trainers, this situation necessitated the establishment of criteria for locating and recruiting qualified candidates. In addition, it was necessary to identify the requisite skills, research sources for the provision of skills training, inspect and evaluate these sources, negotiate specific programmes, co-ordinate the entire training programme and monitor the progress of the candidates and the effectiveness of training. These activities were all part of a normal training function, but they were applied on an international scale where customs, communications and perspectives were unique to each culture.
Trainers involved in such activities must, of course, tailor training programmes to meet the trainees’ need for content. The presentation of the content is enhanced greatly, however, when cultural, linguistic, behavioural and ethnic factors are considered. In addition, trainers need to ascertain whether the trainees are partial to inductive or deductive reasoning; the spatial relationships determined by positions of power in a culture; and what are the unacceptable and acceptable modes of behaviour (i.e., the “taboos” and the “to do’s”).
For example, in preparing the various training schools to accommodate these students, it was necessary to brief their staff on learning styles (deductive over inductive), cultural behaviour characteristics, correct cultural protocol (such as not touching an individual with the left hand) and the role of ambiguity and indirectness in personal communication. As well, instructorswere briefed on the need to refrain from marking an individual for special recognition during training situations.
In the programme described above then, every aspect of the training, both
contracted and in-house, was reviewed by the author and an Indonesian counterpart
to ensure that all cultural factors were considered. The result was that Indonesian
pilots, operating in a second language, were trained successfully in five different
cultures — Indonesian, Swiss, Dutch, American and Japanese — to
guide equipment and cargo worth millions, while at the same time, meeting the
requirements of their country’s maritime policy.
From the Journal of European Industrial Training (U.K.) © David C. Wigglesworth
who can be reached at: dcwigg@earthlink.net.
~Home~