The Maritime Signals course students begin their week of classroom training

It is a blended learning course given by Fundación Valenciaport and promoted and endorsed by Puertos del Estado and the Port Authority of Valencia.

The inaugural session was attended by the president of the Port Authority of Valencia, Mar Chao; the president of Puertos del Estado, Álvaro Rodríguez; and the general director of Fundación Valenciaport, Antonio Torregrosa.

Valencia, February 13th, 2024. – The students of the 1st edition of the course “Aids to Maritime Navigation”, blended training provided by Fundación Valenciaport and promoted and supported by Puertos del Estado and the Port Authority of Valencia, began yesterday their week of classroom training in Madrid, after a week of online classes.

The 15 students of the course, all of them workers of the navigation aids service of different Spanish port authorities (Barcelona, Castellón, Algeciras, Vigo, Cartagena, Vilagarcía, Motril, Melilla, Pasaia, Palma, Tarragona, Baleares, Tenerife and Cartagena) attended the course, Tenerife and Cartagena) attended yesterday the master lecture given by Jaime Álvarez, secretary of the Engineering and Digital Commissions of the international association IALA, in an inaugural session attended by the president of the Port Authority of Valencia, Mar Chao; the president of Puertos del Estado, Álvaro Rodríguez; and the director general of Fundación Valenciaport, Antonio Torregrosa.

The purpose of the maritime signalling service managed by the port authorities is the installation, maintenance, control and inspection of active or passive visual, acoustic, electronic or radio-electric devices designed to improve the safety of navigation and the movements of ships in the Spanish coastal sea and, where appropriate, to confirm the position of ships in navigation. The provision of this service is the responsibility of each port authority in the geographical area assigned to it for this purpose.

Puertos del Estado is the body responsible for the planning, coordination and control of the Spanish maritime signalling system, and for the promotion of training, research and technological development in these matters.

In this sense, Puertos del Estado, in coordination with the Port Authority of Valencia and Fundación Valenciaport, has developed this course in order to enhance the knowledge and qualification of the personnel assigned to the maritime signalling service of the Port Authorities.
Another of the objectives of this course is the accreditation of the students in certain modules recognised at international level by the IALA World Academy.

It is planned that during the course the students will travel to Valencia to attend another two weeks of classroom training which will be given in the facilities of the old Lighthouse of the Port of Valencia, recently remodelled by the APV.

This training is the first of a series of activities aimed at making the Port of Valencia a laboratory of innovation in aids to navigation.