SQLearn's VR training games for shipping: tanker walkthroughs

SQLearn is a Greek company that was founded in 2006 and is based in Piraeus. A company profile of the time called it a specialist in integrated e-learning for enterprises and educational institutions, with a flagship e-learning suite that combines live and self-paced teaching and a digital library of multimedia material for adults. It specializes in maritime training and develops its own learning management system and online courses for shipping companies.

Its virtual reality work gives seafarers a safe place to practice emergencies that are hard to stage on board. The company said VR offers unmatched scenario-based training that can be deployed at sea or on land. It named mooring operations, machinery adjustments, galley fires and engine room explosions as typical scenarios. In early VR walkthroughs it modeled basic sections of a tanker vessel, mainly the bridge, parts of the engine room and the deck.

The headsets were Oculus Rift or the standalone Oculus Go, which can be used at sea or on land without a computer. SQLearn said the aim was to shorten training time and cut cost while keeping the crew member active in the exercise.

The VR work sits inside a wider e-learning business. The company's own platform, which it calls the Dolphin Platforms suite, was described as a complete set of learning services for the shipping industry. A trade article titled Playing Serious Games with Virtual Reality, in the Maritime Executive, covered the tanker walkthroughs.

SQLearn's site is online and has a page for virtual reality training. It lists three VR e-courses developed by the company: how to test the emergency generator, fire in the engine control room and lifeboat launching procedure. The rest of the catalog covers online computer-based training courses, a training management system, a seafarers competence management system, STCW courses, vetting inspection preparation software called Vetti and an AI training assistant called CaptAIn. For VR, the site suggests the Oculus Quest as a standalone device and argues that VR lets training departments simulate stressful or life-threatening situations that would be hard to reproduce in real life.

The company has also changed hands. An announcement on its site dated 10.12.2025 says that Mintra, a provider of digital learning and workforce management for the maritime and energy sectors, completed the acquisition of SQLearn. According to that announcement, SQLearn supports more than 1,000 vessels, 50,000 seafarers and 150 shipping companies worldwide.