Update on STCW Personal Safety and Social Responsibilities (PSSR)

From the 1st of January 2026, amendments adopted under the IMO Resolution MSC.560(108) came into effect, introducing additional competence elements within the STCW Convention, Table A-VI/1-4 Personal Safety and Social Responsibilities (PSSR).  We offer our guidance on this update; what this means for seafarers, operators, and training providers.

Do we listen to the voices at sea? Addressing bullying and harassment onboard

Bullying and harassment remain among the most serious (and often silent) threats to seafarer wellbeing. These behaviours don’t just affect individuals; they undermine safety, morale, and retention across the entire maritime industry. In this article by Dr Joanna-Eugenia Bakouni, we explore what’s at stake and what meaningful change could look like. We believe addressing this issue starts with awareness, dialogue, and action.

Safeguarding the future workforce

To support organisations in aligning with the updated PSSR competence and broader violence and harassment awareness expectations, we provide a range of learning formats that can be applied depending on regulatory, company or cultural objectives. One of which is the Prevention and Response to Violence and Harassment Onboard e-learning, which provides mandatory knowledge and awareness to meet the new STCW requirements for creating safe working and living environments at sea.

Safety starts before the job does

Safety culture is shaped long before someone steps offshore or climbs a turbine. In our collaboration with Siemens Gamesa, we focused on preparing apprentices for the realities of working in wind energy before they step onto site. Mindset, communication, and personal responsibility come first. This approach builds behavioural foundations early – ensuring that safety is not something learned after exposure to risk, but embedded from the very beginning.

The foundation every wind professional needs

Before you specialise, you must understand risk. Our insight on GWO Basic Safety Training explores why this programme forms the backbone of safety culture in wind energy. It builds hazard awareness, emergency readiness, and personal accountability from the outset. Much like PSSR in Maritime, it ensures safety is not an afterthought, rather the starting point of every career.

When disruption hits, safety culture is put to the test

Our Head of Crisis Management, Vidar Gade, wrote this insightful article on what resilience looks like in practice. Not as theory, but as behaviour under pressure. We show how preparation, communication, and personal accountability shape outcomes when circumstances shift. Because culture is revealed in the moments you did not plan for. 

Major emergencies do not test procedures - they test people

Our OPITO Major Emergency Management Initial Response programme is designed for those who must take control in the first critical moments of an incident. It focuses on situational awareness, structured decision-making, communication, and leadership under pressure. Like safety culture and personal responsibility, OPITO MEMIR builds preparedness at command level.