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Ocean Technologies and Lobster Ink form strategic partnership to offer cruise hospitality courses

Recognising the specialist learning needs of the cruise ship hotel department, Ocean Technologies Group (OTG) has signed a strategic partnership with Lobster Ink, a division of Ecolab Inc. that will add more than 100 cruise-relevant hospitality courses to the Ocean Learning Platform (OLP).

Mary Bond, Editor in Chief

April 4, 2023

2 Min Read
Credit: Seatrade Cruise News

These new titles focus on the hotel team and cover critical areas, including front-of-house service, housekeeping, bartending, cooking techniques and restaurant hosting.

Cruise ship hotel teams

Making up more than 70% of the crew on board, the cruise ship hotel team directly influences guest satisfaction, which drives spending while aboard, repeat business and increased customer loyalty.

With a proven track record of providing innovative learning solutions to lodging and hospitality brands, Lobster Ink equips frontline teams with the skills, knowledge and behaviours needed to deliver consistent and exceptional guest experiences.

Compliance and service quality

Through the addition of hotel department titles, OLP now offers a complete solution to cruise ship owners providing a clearer picture of compliance and service quality across their fleets. The hotel department will also be able to take advantage of the features of OLP that have only previously been available to the deck and technical departments.

Tools such as OLP’s inbuilt Virtual Classroom offer the opportunity to deliver group training remotely,

OLP authoring tools allow operators to add and monitor the completion of their own brand-specific training. Online functionality and the OLP mobile app open up possibilities to make learning a pre-boarding requirement that can be done at home or en route to the ship.

Combined content

The competency management functions allow for OTG, Lobster Ink, and a customer’s own content to be combined, along with practical exercises to build clear competence-building pathways that allow for skills building and career progression.

‘Our new partnership with Lobster Ink opens up a wealth of opportunities for our cruise customers,’ said Joost van Ree, group director cruise & yachts at Ocean Technologies Group.

‘By combining our knowledge of the cruise sector, the power of the Ocean Learning Platform, and Lobster Ink’s expert understanding of hotel and guest services, we have a comprehensive solution to build knowledge, acquire skills and drive the performance of the hotel team,’ he added.

In addition, OTG provides cruise lines, ship managers and recruitment partners with a range of pre-employment screening tools, such as the Marlins English language and Seagull CES test and a range of flag-approved STCW Courses.

‘We're thrilled about partnering with Ocean Technologies Group during this important time for the industry. And as our learning library continues to evolve, our shared customers will benefit from an ever-growing training resource for their teams,’ said Gerard du Plessis, marketing director of Lobster Ink.

Crew data

Recent estimates suggest that nearly 73,000 crew are needed per year to power the cruise industry.

 

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Training

About the Author

Mary Bond

Editor in Chief

Mary Bond is Group Director, Seatrade Cruise a division within Informa Markets and responsible for the Seatrade portfolio of global cruise events, print and online cruise publishing.

Mary is also the publisher and editor-in-chief of Seatrade Cruise News and Seatrade Cruise Review magazine.

Mary has worked in the shipping industry for 39 years, first for Lloyd’s Register of Shipping before joining Seatrade’s editorial team in 1985.

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