Getting Duel Qualified- SMART funding

[hatty]

So I?m a qualified deck officer, but due to lack of opportunity and personal loss of interest in the deck side (won?t bore you with details, just lots of horrible experiences) I decided I want to requalify as an ETO. I found when I was working onboard ships I love what they did and ever since have been desperate to go down that path.
I started looking at options but I know many companies won?t take me on due to them not reciting SMART funding, because I have already used my ?allocated? amount for my deck.
Anyone know any alternative routes I can go down? Any company I can apply to that wouldn?t have an issue with this? I know RFA do and they are my favourite anyway, but I would love to know if there were any other routes I could take to get me to where I want to be.
Currently doing a year at uni doing Electronic and Electrical Engineering to get my maths A-level equivalency plus obviously a bit more extra knowledge.
Thanks for all the help

[agibbs98]

I’m sure ETOs still don’t require tickets to sail as ESOs (same thing basically). If you can get the uni course done and maybe a years experience shore side in electrical maintenance/engineering, and get your high voltage management level STCW... you could in theory get agency jobs as a lecky and then go full time if they like you. We’ve had leckies turn up at our company with less qualifications than you’ll have once you finish your course.

Good luck anyway, hope it works out!