What can I do after STCW Basic Safety Training?

 

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To be honest, although STCW Basic Safety Training is required for employment on a boat but by itself, it isn't enough to get employment on a boat. To get sea going time you will need a job. If you do not have a job, find out from the Maritime Authority if you can get a Boatmaster Grade 3 licence without sea going time.

If you are allowed to do Boatmaster 3 without sea going time, you will learn some basic seamanship and navigation in the Boatmaster 3 certificate course. So with STCW Basic Safety Training and Boatmaster 3, you will have some knowledge but still will have no experience. Do not get carried away with that Boatmaster 3 certificate, everyone starts at the bottom on boats. So you will be applying for entry level jobs as a junior seaman. When you get a job, congratulations, you are accumulating sea going time. You can expect to do some washing down, painting, greasing, rope pulling and standing on deck for hours.

When you have 6 months sea going time, you can do the STCW Ratings Forming Part of a Navigation Watch course. Remember that if you are working two weeks on the boat and two weeks home, it will take you at least a calendar year to get 6 months sea going time. At this stage, you will also have more than enough sea going time to do the Boatmaster Grade 2 certificate.

When you have 12 months sea going time, you can do the STCW Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boat course. At this stage, you will have more than enough sea going time to do the Boatmaster Grade 1 certificate, but you are not yet a qualified sailor.

When you have had your RFPNW for 12 months sea going time, you can do the Able Bodied Seafarer Deck course. Now you are a qualified sailor with at least 18 months sea going time. You have done lots of washing down, painting, greasing, rope pulling and standing on deck for hours. Maybe if you are both very good and very lucky a company will employ you as a mate.

A mate is a supervisory job on a boat and is an assistant to the captain.

A Boatmaster Grade 2 or 1 Licence is needed to work in supervisory jobs in a boat's deck department. Boatmaster Licences are issued by the Maritime Authority in a country. There will be a number of things that must be done to get a boatmaster licence. A candidate for a Boatmaster 2 or 1 licence must have: a valid medical, a valid STCW basic safety training certificate, a boatmaster 3 licence, the required amount of sea going time and a boatmaster 2 or 1 certificate.