section_path: Standards, training and organisations
section_name: Standards, training and organisations
paragraph_text: Standards, training and organisations
  
  Professional standards for navigation depend on the type of navigation and vary by country. For marine navigation, Merchant Navy deck officers are trained and internationally certified according to the STCW Convention. Leisure and amateur mariners may undertake lessons in navigation at local/regional training schools. Naval officers receive navigation training as part of their naval training.
  
  In land navigation, courses and training is often provided to young persons as part of general or extra-curricular education. Land navigation is also an essential part of army training. Additionally, organisations such as the Scouts and DoE programme teach navigation to their students. Orienteering organisations are a type of sports that require navigational skills using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain whilst moving at speed.
  
  In aviation, pilots undertake air navigation training as part of learning to fly.
  
  Professional organisations also assist to encourage improvements in navigation or bring together navigators in learned environments. The Royal Institute of Navigation (RIN) is a learned society with charitable status, aimed at furthering the development of navigation on land and sea, in the air and in space. It was founded in 1947 as a forum for mariners, pilots, engineers and academics to compare their experiences and exchange information. In the US, the Institute of Navigation (ION) is a non-profit professional organisation advancing the art and science of positioning, navigation and timing.