The School Bell Rings

DING DING DING! The School Bell rings. 

Yes, after you achieve sponsorship with your company, you will now start your career in the Merchant Navy, which means in September (or January depending on when you applied) its time to grab the notebooks and pencil cases and move into one of the Maritime Colleges around the UK. There are five 'phases' spanning over 3 years. Phase 1, 3 & 5 are all college time where you study and sit your exams. Phases 2 and 4 are scheduled sea time where you gain a minimum 12 months sea time and complete your TRB. (more on that later.)

Your sponsoring company may have a preference to which academy you attend. Some allow you to have a choice and some prefer to send you to the college furthest away from home, so be prepared to live up to your interview statement  of "I love being away from home" or "I don't mind travelling."

Colleges include, Warsash Maritime Academy with Southampton Solent University, South Tyneside, Plymouth University, City of Glasgow College to name a few. My experience is with Warsash Maritime Academy, near Southampton.
What can I say about Warsash life? Well, the food there is not haute cuisine but neither is the food on the ships so they set you up for disappointment early on. In addition, you may be required to share "cabins" with other fellow cadets. This is also designed to get you used to the idea of joining a ship and share a room with a complete stranger and be able to get along instantly. Warsash is also being slowly absorbed by Southampton Solent University meaning that the original campus may not be existent to new cadets. The process of absorption of Warsash has positives and negatives, but are for another time.

Which college is best to go to? I couldn't possibly comment being biased, but it is advised that if you do have a choice of college, do some research and chose the best one for you. Happy Days!

Yo Ho, Yo Ho, a sailors life for me!

So its a sailors life for you. Congratulations on your decision, but now what? Where do you start looking? What are your options?

The Merchant Navy Training Board (MNTB) is good place to start. Here you will find everything about careers at sea, how to apply, and even have a list of current sponsoring companies. Theres a lot about framework and lengthy documents that you could pretend to read, but what is it that you really need to know?

Drawing from my experience there are three paths you can choose (for deck):

1. Deck rating apprenticeship.

2.HND/HNC deck Officer training.

3. Foundation degree Officer training.

The minimum age you can apply is 16, meaning that you could be a fully qualified deck officer by your 19th birthday. (pretty cool right?)

Deck rating path is as follows:

Deck Rating - Ordinary Seamen - Able Seamen - Bosun - Third/Second Officer - Chief Officer - Master (Captain)

HND/HNC path:

Deck Cadet (3 years training) - Third/Second Officer (OOW) - Chief Officer - Master

Foundation degree path:

Deck Cadet (3 years) - Third/Second Officer (OOW) - Chief Officer - Master

With the foundation degree route, you study for your Officer of the Watch (OOW) and do your foundation degree at the same time. There is also the possibility to study for extra year and upgrade the foundation degree to a full Bachelors. The degree you earn is a degree in Navigation and Maritime Science, which can lead to various opportunities ashore, as well as being able to command a ship!

Which ever path you choose, first thing is first. You have to apply and get some interviews. What companies are looking for will be in the next blog, but to finish off, you have to shop around a a bit. Do a bit of research into what kind of ships you would like to work on. If you know what you want then primarily apply to those sorts of companies. If you don't  know, then perhaps a charity funded training company may appeal better. Although in the end you may just have to choose the one that gives you a offer, but bare in mind that if you apply for container company, you will be on container ships throughout your cadetship, which could be a bit of a downer if half way through your first contact you suddenly realise...."actually...I don't like containerships." You would just have to stick with it until you graduate and then you can choose which sector of the industry you'd like to be in. This is where the determination comes in and the ability to see the bigger picture.

Until next time.

Where to begin?

One question which has astounded me throughout my career so far is "what even is the merchant navy?" 

When thinking back to my careers advice sessions and browsing their library trying to draw some inspiration for a career path, I remember a lot of information on the Royal Navy. A career path which is often confused with the  Merchant Navy but is in fact entirely different, in operation and goals. 

When asked the question, "what do you do?" I usually come out with "well, you know those big cruise ships or those container ships? I basically drive one of those for 8 hours a day." Every person I explain what I do to has had the same astounded face, followed by a sudden realisation that the big floating cities actually do require a form of human pilotage. I remember having the same light bulb moment when gazing out of my school window on the seafront one day (ironic), and thinking... someone must be driving that thing, and so started my investigation into the Merchant Navy, and the ball rolling towards an officers ticket.  

Every merchant navy officer has their own elaborate story as to how they chose or sometimes fall into this career. Many have a lineage in either the Merchant or Royal navy, whether being their fathers, grandfathers, uncles, cousins or family friends. Others, including myself, have had very little influence from their families and are seen as "fresh blood" into the industry, attracted by the promise of travel and tax free income, not to mention a practical based three years training and being paid for it instead of racking up a £50,000 student debt bill. 

So is the sailors life for me?

Life on a ship can be a double edged sword. The benefits and advantages reflect each other. For example, travel. You MIGHT travel as a cadet, but it is not guaranteed. it is guided by the nature of your company. as an offshore cadet, you may spend your whole time in the North sea, where as a cruise company may land the world wise cruise for a few months, with a new port every day, but you might be on the wrong shift, and not have enough time to get off to see the port you're in. My first chapter will highlight these pros and cons of the industry through a cadets points of view as well as an officers, the reason being that the responsibilities and freedoms of a cadet and officer are VERY different. 

The first chapter will include an overview of what kind of people recruiters are looking for in a candidate. I think a successful candidate would need to to be bold, practical, determined, eager and sociable. The will be asked up by an insight from interviewers for the merchant navy cadets and officers.

If anyone has any extra information they feel should be highlighted in educating people in what the merchant navy does, how it operates and who it would best be suited for, comment below. Any contribution is much appreciated!

Intro

Greeting fellow Merchant Navy crew mates!

I am creating this blog in order to bring my project into reality. 

I have just completed three years of Merchant Navy Training, and have been spat out the other end with a FdSc in Navigation and Maritime Science and a OOW unlimited Deck Officers Ticket. through out my officer training I have had the opportunity to travel all over the world, meet some extraordinary people, and face a whole cohort of challenges that not many 16-25 year olds would generally be faced with. But, I have SURVIVED! but many of my colleagues have fallen by the way side, contributing to the problem that the number of cadets finishing their training and gaining their officers certificate is falling. 

Thereby I want to create a small compact guide to help existing cadets, new cadets and possible cadets survive the many months away at sea and how to get the most out of their college phases. 

Throughout my training, there was a lot of literature on how to pass your orals right at the end and countless codes and rules and regulations which could cure any insomniac, but how do you get to that point? What do you need to do? What do you need to take on ships? who can help? Whats the syllabus? Is it for me? What even is the Merchant Navy?! (A question I have been asked too many times that i care to mention)

Within this blog, I want to reach out to all ranks of of the merchant navy, salty sea dogs to budding gadgets to answer any questions and to discuss topics to be addressed in my guide to ensure that it is a sound piece of literature, current and above all useful in helping cadets reach their full potential in the Maritime Industry. 

Will post again soon with the first chapter that I have written in the next few days. 

until then, standby.