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”Finally a BRM course that offers more than the base content required to fulfill a regulatory requirement. The addition of human elements and psychological safety to the curriculum is long overdue in the marine industry and I for one believe the subject matter can have the most immediate and significant impact on any crew. Simulation time was less overall compared to other BRM courses but the exercises were intense and deliberate, the debriefing was far more extensive and insightful than I have ever encountered and this is where most of the learning happened. The classroom and debriefing room were perfect, accommodations were top notch. Instructors and Operators were world class. Thank you Anette for answering all of our questions ahead of time and looking after the group as we got familiar with the region. Thanks to Jonas and Niclas for the smooth simulation. Thanks to Joakim for bringing BRM into the 21st century. I believe you are all leading the way to a safer and happier marine industry! Tusen tack”
”Very impressed with Joakim’s knowledge and perspective. I will bring what I learned and implement it into my practices. The hospitality and accommodations were fantastic. Thank you all so very much!!”
”This course has been the best course I have ever taken. Joakim teaches the course in a way that captivates participants, and explains every topic very thoroughly and in a way that everyone understands.”
”It’s been a little over a week now since returning home and I am still thinking about how great everything was over there. The course content, yourself as the instructor, the whole atmosphere of the training centre, and kindness of everyone we had the opportunity to meet, was amazing.
I’d like to thank you and Anette again for putting this together, and making it a course, and experience that I don’t think will be easily forgotten!
So far, nearly everyone has the same thoughts:
Great Instructor
Course content was fresh and differed from what is normally taught in BRM
Appreciated working with their shipmates
BRM & ERM should remain together
Debriefs were great!
Case studies were perfect
….I could go on and on.”
”I wanted to drop you a line to thank you for the work you have done for the course conducted last week. The feedback that I have received so far has been incredible and very enthusiastic. Your style of engagement has been discussed including your extensive experience and how that is woven into the training. I am very happy that we were able to make this work.”
”Course was highly engaging and very productive. I really appreciated the individual approach, which helped to unlock new tools for safe ship handling. Exercises were closely aligned with real-life in respect to typical ports and the Vinga model, which provided an excellent and realistic training experience.”

”Very good course that are providing us with useful tools that we can actually use onboard in our day to day operation.”

”I am very pleased with the Shiphandling course. The training was extremely well structured and provided valuable knowledge that will be directly applicable in practice. The instructors were highly skilled, professional, and clearly very experienced in the field. They created a positive and motivating learning environment, and their ability to explain complex situations in a clear and practical way was outstanding.The shiphandling scenarios were very relevant and realistic, providing great opportunities to practice and apply the knowledge in practical situations.”

”The instructor exceeded all expectations, as did the course content. One of the few courses we have to take where you got something that you actually want to incorporate on board.”

”It was very interesting to observe the participants change socially after the first exercises. The group quickly became more personal and open with another. Within this new group dynamic, the instructor shared some of his own difficult life experiences in a natural and heartful way, which added even more depth and warmth to the group. The instructor also encouraged and supported a younger participant who frequently criticized his own performance. It was clear that he struggled with self-confidence and aimed for perfection, often judging himself harshly. The instructor noticed this and responded with great care and sensitivity, handling the situation in a truly compassionate and respectful manner.”

” ”Even the best olympians athletes will need great coaching!”
Last week’s Advance Ship Handling course with focus on ship to ship at Donsö Maritime Training Center has definitely helped me to raise my technical and human skills to become a better Captain and leader. Captain Joakim Vonasek and his team gave us a better perspective of our strengths and weaknesses and gave us tools to progress.”

“The course is one of the most intense, interesting and rewarding courses I have ever been on.”

“Premises and accommodation. 5 boats out of 5.”

”I don’t think you could have a better instructor. It’s obvious that Joakim is passionate about this. And I hope I can benefit from his knowledge in the future.”

”Training was provided by experienced captain that had it focus as much as on human factor as on technical skills. The camera filming us during the exercises helped us to recognize some patterns and highlighted where there could be improvements in our bridge behavior.”

”Good, interesting and rewarding course with committed course leaders. Interesting with a personal focus on what you can improve on. Brings me some new thinking going forward. A lot of focus on communication, behavior and pilot/co-pilot which is always good to practice. Many good discussions that arose from real examples that were discussed. Open environment where everyone felt involved. Good with a smaller group. What was discussed in the theoretical part felt relevant. Hope it can be built on in the future. Maybe have the course again in a year or two or run the course at intervals. Feels like it provides concrete development and knowledge. Fun with courses that are about what you are actually doing. Rewarding to get other perspectives with regard to ship handling.”

”It was a good mix of theory and exercises, and thanks to the very competent and experienced instructors, we also managed to optimize the exercises so that they clearly reflected the theories discussed.”

“Surprisingly easy to get to the island despite its location. Plus for accommodation close to the practice facility. Good food! The overall impression is definitely positive!”

“Both the facilities, accommodation and food were top class and so were the instructors.”
”So in summary, I can only say that it was a great course and that I hope we have the opportunity to come back again soon for new lessons!”

”In summary, I would like to emphasize that it has been a very good course where I have taken something positive with me from every moment and no part felt redundant. As a relatively new person, it feels very rewarding to be able to try out the theory in practice and to get the time and help needed to understand the principles in a non-critical situation. The fact that we, the least experienced, formed the team on the bridge during maneuvering was something that I also thought was very good because we got to find the solutions together. The BRM courses gave many good pointers on what can be developed on board to make the team stronger and the daily operation safer.”

”Points that I particularly appreciated about the course are:
• The focus was on the development of the group/individual throughout the course
• Participants were given the opportunity to develop according to their own circumstances
• We participants feel we grew as a group
• Unpretentious maneuvering which gave us less used to the opportunity to test theory in practice
• Good facilities, food and hotel which contributed to the overall experience
• Very competent instructor in Joakim with excellent teaching”

“My overall impression of the course is very good. It gave me insight into how to work to create good psychological security and the positive things it contributes. The combination of theory around the subject and examples from real life gave good clarity. For me, the best thing about the course was the BRM runs and their debriefing. The runs had a good level of traffic, which gave a lot of space for discussions between Öst and 2stm. The debriefing provided a lot of information for both those who were driving and those who were sitting with them. Each sequence that was covered was anchored with theory and explanations, which made it very easy to learn from.”

“Thank you for a great course, in a great place – both physically and mentally. I want to start by expressing how incredibly important this course was for me as a person, both in my profession and privately. The whole thing has been incredibly rewarding, from the small moments with each other as participants to as mentors. You can immediately tell that we are here to build the team. The group itself enables an openness that allows us to develop even more together and personally. Joakim sees the details in our runs and gives us feedback that is concrete and constructive. We are given the opportunity to develop and discuss what we have just done and follow up on our body language, tone of voice and choice of words.”

”I would definitely like to go to Donsö again to build on our knowledge and develop. A course like this must not be dropped or discontinued. An extension ”ship handling” course would be perfect to continue with”

”I think the course was really well organized. Joakim welcomed us well, which made us feel comfortable and allowed us to be ourselves from the start. The most interesting and rewarding parts were the reviews of the simulator runs. Both being able to participate in reviews of other people’s runs and our own. It was interesting to hear what we did well and what we could improve. Unfortunately, I didn’t have time to maneuver much, which was a shame, but I thought it focused on the right things in the tight schedule. It would have definitely been worth doing this course with commanders and mates to develop their cooperation and thinking about the bridge. I will take with me a lot of what we talked about when it comes to communication during maneuvering and ask more questions to get a conversation started. The course felt well thought out and the layout was very rewarding. It would have been exciting to take the course again in a couple of years to see how we have developed.”

”First of all, I would like to thank you for a very good and useful course. It has given me a completely different picture when it comes to BRM and manoeuvring. We had different scenarios during video recording to see how we act in different traffic situations at sea. Joakim and Anna stopped in the process and explained how we acted with body language, tone of voice and behaviour. I personally have never had that point of view on BRM. How important it is to communicate and help each other to drive the ship safely. Ultimately, we are going from point A to point B, why not do it safely, I think. This course made me realise just this. We also got a short introduction to ship handling which was also very useful. How the ship reacts when manoeuvring in different ways. We then applied this in the simulator which was worth its weight in gold. I have no criticism to make. There was nothing to complain about. The approach from both Joakim and Anna was excellent and it made you feel comfortable and safe, just like ”so that you can feel at your workplace. A course to really recommend to all officers. Hope we can have the opportunity to take your shiphandling course.”

”For me, this was a very useful course that gave me keys to continue working on myself to become better in my profession.”

“What made the course good was the interaction between Joakim and Anna and a fantastic dynamic in the group. Joakim’s ability to see small details that affect BRM work was incredibly useful and worth thinking about.”

”I am very satisfied with the course, I learned a lot about how we can develop our bridge team to become better together and that it will be safer to handle the ship. It was a good mix of practical and theoretical elements, also good that we got to watch each other and see the behaviors in ourselves ”triggered” in certain situations. Both Joakim and Anna were very talented, knowledgeable in their subjects and they were able to convey it in a good way so that we understood what they meant and wanted to get out.”

”Overall, I am very satisfied and would like us to continue with this concept. All officers should take this course and then continue with additional advanced courses. It will increase our safety in handling our vessels”