Best companies to train with?

[Surfer Girl]

Hi there
I'm currently looking into sponsorship by certain shipping companies. I have the experience and grades to meet all requirements but I'm not sure with company to train with or what kind of ship is best to work on. I want the most options open for when I finish training and am seeking employment, so this would exclude cruise ship companies for now since you can't work on any other type of ships if you train with them right? Please recommend some good companies since I could really use some professional advice ^_^



P.S I don't mind at all what kind of ship to work on for training. No preferences as long as the company is decent

[Bulman]

Doesn't work like that at all haha, training varies from person to person, as its as much effort as you put in you'll get out and you can sometimes be unlucky and have a bad trip! In my class their are several people with the same companies and all of them had different training. Right at this point in time you shouldn't be picking certain companies, apply to them all, then you can decide, once you get accepted by one, who to take.

and dont exclude cruises, their great fun, and its not true you cant "work on any other type of ship" you can do any thing if your willing to work hard, plus if your speaking like that cruises actually give you a "better" footing in super yachts. but lets see what others with more experience say

[Clanky]

The most important thing is to try and get with a company who will employ you after you have qualified. It can be very difficult to get a job after a cadetship if you have no experience as a qualified officer. There is no particular ship type which opens up everything else, if you have only been on tankers it can be difficult to get into cruise ships, if you have only been on cruise ships it can be difficult to get into tankers etc. but it can be done.

For a good all round training I would suggest ro-ro's, but I'm not sure if any of the UK ro-ro companies employ cadets directly or if they all use training agencies.

[IFHP]

Agree with the above.

Make sure above all else you are training with a company that employs British Junior Officers otherwise it might be a struggle getting employed afterwards.

As for training on ship type, I went with tankers and have never been turned down for a ship type, I cant speak for coming the other way.

[EH75]

Qualified a few months ago, trained on containers with a company who do not employ British officers. Here's my thoughts:

Try and get a company which employs British Officers. This would be my number one priority for a couple of reasons. Firstly, there is a decent chance you will get offered a job at the end of it. Secondly if they employ British officers then you will probably sail with British officers so there will be no language barrier and they are more likely to understand the training system and what you need to do on board to fulfil your training. Not to say that all British Officers are brilliant and willing to train you, no doubt some are not, but at least they will be able to understand you!

Second priority would probably be to try and get trained on a type of ship which requires extra courses such as (off the top of my head) tankers or something involving DP. So that way you get your tanker fam and DCE or for DP maybe some sort of DP experience as a cadet, which will make it much easier to get into these jobs as a qualified officer. Not to say you can't get into them coming from a different background but it will be more difficult.

Companies which I reckon are probably pretty decent either from what people have said on here or from friends who have trained with them:

Any of the oil majors (Shell, BP, Chevron etc)
Northern Marine
Viking Supply
Farstad
Gulf Offshore
Trinity House

Not an exhaustive list, obviously...

[chris]

Based on what Ive read on the forum, BP or the RFA seem the best in terms of training and pay.

[Lewis]

Unless you have offers from more than one company it'd not worth worrying about. Apply to anyone and everyone.