The AECO Field Staff Online Assessment was launched in December 2017. Through online exams, guides and expedition leaders can test their knowledge of AECO guidelines and relevant regulations.

For the 2023 season an AECO Online Mariners Assessment was added.

Field staff and senior crew are some of the most important decision makers in our industry. The effectiveness of AECO’s guidelines relies on the competence and judgement of the people in the field. Every day, field staff and crew make decisions that can impact life, health and environment, but also the reputation of Arctic expedition cruising. AECO’s Field Staff Online Assessment, developed with the support of the Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund, aims to further develop the important competence that field staff represent.

 

Annual tests

The AECO Annual General Meeting decided in 2019 that field staff is required to take the relevant Field Staff Online Assessments annually.

In 2022, the AECO Annual General Meeting decided that it was mandatory for designated crew to take the AECO Mariners Assessment annually.

Designated crew: Captain, Staff Captain (where applicable, Officers in charge of navigational watch, Environmental Officer (where applicable), Chief Engineer, Lead Hotel Officer/Manager, Helicopter pilot (where applicable), Submersible pilot (where applicable).

Designated crew are only asked to take the AECO Mariners Assessment. The Field Staff Assessments is also available to crew, should they be interested, but it is not mandatory.

 

Responsibility

Operating members are responsible for ensuring that their staff and mariners comply with AECO obligations.

 

What does the assessment consist of?

The assessments focus on knowledge about AECO’s guidelines and principles in combination with knowledge about Svalbard, Greenland, Canada, and Iceland.

AECO Field Staff Assessments:

• AECO General Questions 2023 (50 questions)
• Greenland 2023 (35 questions)
• Svalbard 2023 (65 questions)
• Canada 2023 (25 questions)
• Iceland 2023 (12 questions)

 

AECO Mariners Assessment:

• AECO Mariners Assessment 2023 (80 questions)

 

Each test is a combination of multiple choice and yes/no questions.

Currently, the AECO Online Assessments do not contain specific questions on the Russian Arctic National Park, which is also a part of the AECO geographical area. Field Staff who will only work in this area should only take the test “AECO General Questions 2023”.

If you work elsewhere in the Arctic outside the geographical area of AECO, please consult with your employer if they require you to participate in the testing scheme. If so, please take the test “AECO General Questions 2023”.

 

Availability of the Online Assessments 

1 January – 31 December.

Candidates already registered can log on and take the relevant test(s) directly. Staff and crew that have not previously been registered will have to be registered via their employer. Newly registered staff and crew will get direct notification from AECO once registration has been completed.

 

Access to the Online Assessments

To access the assessments, you must log into SpeedExam, the online platform where test is taken: https://candidate.speedexam.net/signin.aspx?site=aeco

Upon registration, log-in credentials for SpeedExam (NOT the AECO members only pages) are forwarded automatically. Please check your spam folder to ensure that the automatically generated e-mail from SpeedExam hasn’t ended up there. If you have not received a username and password for SpeedExam, please contact aeco@aeco.no.

 

Reference material and resources when taking the tests 

When taking the test, the candidate is encouraged to use all available tools and resources, including AECO guidelines and website. Most references can be found in a dedicated “Field Staff Assessment – References” and “Mariners Assessment – References” section under the publicly available “Resources and Tools” menu.

Most questions contain information about which reference document you should consult to find the correct answer. There is no time limit and you can pause a test and continue at a later stage.

Please note that the purpose of the assessment is not to know all the information by heart, but rather to know where you can find relevant information.

 

AECO Site Specific Guidelines

AECO Site Specific Guidelines are available in this Dropbox folder: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/8lfw11639coc6vf/AABfdcBzPKe9BjtbxjKms1bta?dl=0

Please note that AECO Site Specific Guidelines is proprietary information and may not be shared, copied, or distributed to third parties. Non-AECO members are not authorized to use AECO’s guidelines for any official purposes.

 

Test certificate

Upon successful completion of a test, the candidate can download a certificate to certify that they have passed the test. You need a score of 85% or higher to pass any given AECO test.

 

Privacy policy

To give you access to the AECO Online Assessments, AECO needs to store your full name, email address and organisational affiliation. We need this information to create a SpeedExam profile for you so that you can access the exams. In addition, the SpeedExam platform stores information about your exam scores. In accordance with EU’s GDPR regulations, we need your consent to store personal information about you. You can withdraw your consent at any time. Read our full terms and conditions here. If you have any questions, please contact us at aeco@aeco.no.

 

Development of the Field Staff Online Assessments

In 2016, AECO received NOK 250.000 NOK (approximately USD 30.000) in funding from the Svalbard Environmental Protection Fund to develop an online assessment for field staff. A working group was tasked with designing the assessment and drafting the questions. Pilot versions of the assessments were tested during the summer of 2017.

 

How can I give AECO feedback regarding the test?

AECO welcomes all feedback on how the assessment can be improved to make it useful for field staff. Please send your comments and questions to aeco@aeco.no. If you have questions or comments regarding specific questions of the test, please provide us with the question identification number (QID), which you will find in the middle of the bar directly above the question. It is essential that you provide the QID if you have comments to a specifi

 

How can I learn more about AECO’s work?

You can visit AECO’s website, sign up for our newsletter and follow us on social media (Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn).