The opening meeting of the Erasmus + KA2 Vocational Training Strategic Partnership project, titled "Colregs Training - NEO-COL (Navigation Tool for Training on Anti-Collision Regulations at Sea)", funded by the European Union, was held in Tuzla headquarters of Türk Loydu on February 22, 2017.  The project is coordinated by Türk Loydu with the partnerships of Tuzla District Governorate, maritime and software firms from Spain, Poland, Germany and Romania.

Tuzla District Governor Mr. Ali Rıza Çalışır, Chairman of the Board of Türk Loydu Mr. Cem Melikoğlu, General Manager of Türk Loydu Mr. Alper Eralp participated the opening meeting. Other participants were representatives of Tuzla District Governorate team, experienced in project development, management and dissipation, Sea Teach from Spain which is involved in maritime education, Maritime University of Constanta from Romania, Danmar Computers from Poland specialized in software development and ICT Technologies, MSG Marine Serve from Germany dealing with maritime law, and provides theoretical and practical safety and navigation education on sea and press.

Chairman of the Board of Türk Loydu Mr. Cem Melikoğlu, made the opening speech of the meeting and stated that since 1962, Türk Loydu has been active in maritime and industrial sectors and has been very pleased to have experienced local and international partners such as Tuzla District Governorship. Melikoğlu; "The Erasmus + project we have carried out for the first time will bring significant results in terms of both the Türk Loydu and the shipping industry," he said. The NEO-COL project, with its e-learning modules and assessment tool for preventing conflicts at sea, which will be formed by the NEO-COL project, will prevent possible accidents at sea and provide important contributions to reduce the loss of life and property.

Tuzla District Governor Mr. Ali Rıza Çalışır stated that as Tuzla District Governorate they always support the projects for the improvement of maritime industry in our district and country and that they are happy to be a stakeholder of this project. He also continued to mention that this project was a significant contributor to the training of maritime education. He ended his words with the desire that the project would be beneficial to the sake of the maritime industry and Tuzla district.

Türk Loydu External Relations Director Mehmet Avci made a presentation about the establishment, mission-vision and working areas of Türk Loydu to the guests who attended the opening meeting. Project manager Uğurcan Acar, representing the NEO-COL project on behalf of Türk Loydu, presented information about the project's partnership structure, objectives, activities and project outputs.

Later, they presented presentations of project authorities from Tuzla District Governorate, Sea Teach (Spain), Constanta Maritime University (Romania), Danmar Computers (Poland), MSG MarineServe (Germany).

After the speeches and informers, the official opening ceremony of the project ended. During the afternoon session of the project meeting, they held a meeting where the project representatives coming from abroad, the coordination of the project, the activities of the project, the output of the project, and the distribution of tasks were discussed. Also during the project meeting, the project representatives were present at the study visit to the ITU Maritime Faculty in Tuzla, the campus to examine on-site training of "Conflict Prevention Regulations at Sea".

The online training modules and measurement and evaluation tools, which is containing the COLregs (Anti-Collision Regulations at Sea) and suitably comply with the requirements of the various seagoing vessels equipments and the experiences of various seafarers will be developed with the 2-year NEO-COL project in the project coordination of  Türk Loydu.

The main activities of the NEO-COL project are;

1) In order to determine the content of the online training program in the context of COLregs, it is necessary to carry out the "needs analysis" study by determining the differences between the theoretical and practical applications with the questionnaire method,

2) For use in conflict prevention training at sea; Develop an "online training module" integrated with modern electronic navigational devices and realistic practical applications that can be applied to marine vehicles using different navigational equipment,

3) Developing an "evaluation tool" to measure the skills of the users participating in the online training program and certifying the users.

Thus, the development of the international NEO-COL online training program and evaluation tool will enable the seafarers who use different navigation equipment such as ECDIS, ARPA or COMPASS to effectively implement the COLREG legislation.

Social media links of the project:
Facebook: www.facebook.com/neocolproject
Twitter: www.twitter.com//neocolproject
Youtube: http://goo.gl/fAYq8q
Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/groups/13515168