By Priam F. Nepomuceno, PNA and U.S. News Agency / Asian

The Philippine-Japan Manning Consultative Council Inc. (PJMMC) has commended the NYK-TDG Maritime Academy (NTMA) for excellent training programs.

The organization feted the Canlubang, Laguna-based institution after its students aced the PJMMC’s maritime school assessment program (MSAP).

MSAP comprises categories A and B. A school is deemed to be in category A when more than 75 percent of its students taking the examination in each of the two previous years achieve a better-than-average passing rate.

A category B rating is given to a school that has a student achieving top-ten ranking on the MSAP exam. NTMA was named an “excellent school” in both categories.

In 2012, the MSAP exam was given to second-year students, and only 32 percent of around 19,000 examinees from 81 merchant vessel seamanship schools in the Philippines passed.

However, all 110 students from NTMA taking the exam passed – the only school to record such an achievement.

In addition, NTMA students accounted for 29 out of the top 30 taking the marine transport course; and in the marine engineering course, the top 30 students were from NTMA.

The performance on the MSAP examination is regarded as an index that can be used to rank seamanship schools in the Philippines.

Performance on the MSAP examination is also an important factor for students hoping to become cadets and core members operating Nippon Yusen Kaisha (NYK)’s fleet.

NTMA is a school established through the partnership of Japanese shipping giant NYK, which was founded in 1885, and the Transnational Diversified Group (TDG), a Filipino-owned business conglomerate established in 1976.

This evolved into different businesses such as shipping, ship crewing, logistics, and back office operations, among others. The ship crewing business of NYK Line and TDG is being managed by NYK-Fil Ship Management, Inc. (NYK-FIL) which to date, is considered as the major supplier of highly qualified officers and crew to NYK Line vessels.

NYK-FIL, in its mission to consistently provide quality officers for NYK Line vessels, has proposed the establishment of a maritime school in 2005 which gave birth to NYK-Transnational Institute Foundation, Inc. (NTIF).

NTIF is the owner of the NYK-TDG Maritime Academy (NTMA), a maritime school duly approved by the Commission on Higher Education in 2006.

NTMA started its operation in June 2007 and represents the single biggest investment in the Philippines of NYK Line and TDG as their corporate social responsibility and contribution to the global competitiveness of the Filipino merchant marine officers.