What is known today as the Caribbean Maritime Institute (CMI) was established in 1980 as the Jamaica Maritime Training Institute (JMTI), the result of the collaborative effort of the Government of Jamaica and the Government of the Kingdom of Norway (NORAD). The aim of the school at the time was to train Jamaican nationals to mann the Jamaica Merchant Marine (JMM) fleet of five ships.

Temporarily located at 9 Norman Road, Kingston, the school started with thirty (30) Jamaican students enrolled in the Merchant Certificate Class III as deck and engineering officers and was ran with a full maritime complement of five (5) Norwegian lecturers. Training was designed in accordance with the Norwegian and British systems of training of seafarers and was well above the minimum requirements of the 1978 Inter-governmental Maritime Consultative Organization (IMCO) (later known as the International Maritime Organization (IMO)) Convention for Seafarers.

A need developed for “able-bodied seamen” for Jamaica Maritime (JMM) and several short courses of three (3) months duration were run for personnel selected by JMM. An important part of the training was the fire fighting and safety training accessible to other organizations including Air Jamaica flight crews.

While the school operated in temporary quarters a more suitable site was found at Palisadoes Park. A school of initially 20, 000 square feet floor space in several buildings was designed and built. By May 1984, the entire JMTI was in new buildings.

The initial opening of JMTI was arranged to coincide with the first graduation of the class IV officers, held at the end of June 1984.

Ten years later (1990) the Institute was identified by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) as the national TRAINMAR Centre through which UNCTAD programmes could be delivered in the Caribbean. The initiative was set up with the aim of equipping senior and middle level managers of the land based ports, shipping and allied industry with the requisite skills to function effectively in the global market.