Sponsorship Offer!

[TheYeti]

Having only sat my interview last Thursday, I was surprised to find out today that I have been offered sponsorship by CMT! I start in January at City of Glasgow College, provided I pass my medical. Needless to say, I'm delighted (and daunted in equal measure).

The offer is for the HNC course. Can anyone tell me what the main difference is between this and the HND course? Am I at a disadvantage before I even start? Does anyone know if there is scope for moving onto the HND course?

Cheers!

[Martyboy]

Hiya,

Yea you can do the HND course after your HNC. Easiest way to explain it is that the HNC will do you to OOW level and the HND is for Chief officer and Master's tickets. The other option is the foundation degree, and theirs already a raging debate going on between the two courses......http://www.officercadet.com/showthre...ns-cutoff-date here Some companies pay for the HND, Clyde doesn't, neither do SSTG or Pritchard Gordon so I wouldn't say your at a disadvantage, you can still get your OOW ticket and go to sea with the HNC Medical is easy to pass.... as long as your not going to keel over and die on a ship your sorted

[TheYeti]

Hiya,

Yea you can do the HND course after your HNC. Easiest way to explain it is that the HNC will do you to OOW level and the HND is for Chief officer and Master's tickets. The other option is the foundation degree, and theirs already a raging debate going on between the two courses......http://www.officercadet.com/showthre...ns-cutoff-date here Some companies pay for the HND, Clyde doesn't, neither do SSTG or Pritchard Gordon so I wouldn't say your at a disadvantage, you can still get your OOW ticket and go to sea with the HNC Medical is easy to pass.... as long as your not going to keel over and die on a ship your sorted

Cool, thanks. I had a look around at the forums after I posted and saw that I can do the HND after the HNC. According to the City of Glasgow College website the HNC course is 6 months longer?! I find this odd as I would assume it is less intensive!? At the ripe old age of 25 (26 next month) I really would prefer to crack on. However, I have to take the opportunities I am given so looking forward to starting

[Martyboy]

6 months longer than the FD course?? Each college is different, We finished out HNC before going back to sea for phase 3

[Lewis]

I'd be very wary about being on the HNC at 26. I'd be asking about doing the PD at Glasgow instead. The HNC is mostly people straight from school as young as 16. For the PD the youngest is going to be 18 or just about to turn 18 with a few more guys your age and older. Do you have the grades for the PD? (if your talking about Glasgow am guessing your already in Scotland so your looking at Highers)

[TheYeti]

6 months longer than the FD course?? Each college is different, We finished out HNC before going back to sea for phase 3

Website says that HNC is 3 and a half years while the HND is 3 years!

[Lewis]

its wrong their pretty much the same. the HNC is longer but no where near 6 months longer probably more like 2

[Martyboy]

That's not right You need the HNC to do the HND, should be the other way around

[EH75]

Recently completed my cadetship at Glasgow so can summarise it for you:

HNC: 3 Years, OOW level theory stuff only. Have to sit MCA orals and writtens. When you go back to do your chief mates you have to go to college for 9 months to learn all your chief mate theory before doing chief mate orals and MCA writtens.

HND: I'm not sure if Glasgow still offer this actually, think you might have to do the 3 year HNC then stay on after for a few months completion of that to do the HND element, provided your company would be willing to pay for it (they probably won't). Anyway on this course on top of all the HNC OOW theory you would have to do the chief mate theory as well. Have to sit OOW orals and writtens to get your ticket. When you go back to do your chief mates ticket you go to college for 3 months for a refresher on the chief mates theory. Have to to chief mate orals and writtens.

PD: 3 Years, in phase 1 you do the HNC, in phase 3 you do the HND plus modules on leadership, communication and project management to cover the PD side of things which are assessed through projects done when you are at sea in phase 4. These exempt you from the OOW & chief mate MCA written exams (however the chief mate exemption is being removed in 2017 so probably won't apply to you). To get your OOW ticket you just have to do orals. When you do your chief mates you only have to go back for 3 months and only have to do orals currently, although as I mentioned this will be changing.

I did the PD and it is a ridiculously intense course because of the amount of work you have to do in such a short space of time. A lot of people weren't prepared for this and the drop out/getting fired rate was quite high (around 50%). Phase one is the worst where you will have exams every other day for the best part of a month towards the end (not an exaggeration). The PD projects I mentioned are actually not that difficult but you do have to waffle a lot. I think I wrote about 10,000 words for each of them, some people wrote more, some wrote a lot less.

The course you go for really depends on your own ability level and motivation. If you are willing to work hard and have good highers/have been to uni before etc then the PD should be doable and whilst I moaned about the workload at the time, when it came to some of my mates on the HNC having to do their writtens and seeing what they had to study, I was quite glad I didn't have to do them. If you are not so confident of your maths and want things at a bit of a slower pace then do the HNC. Changing between them now shouldn't be difficult and you can go up to the PD in the first few weeks of college but not back the other way. A few people jumped up from the HNC to the PD when I was there and found it difficult and dropped out.

Hope that clarifies it a bit. Any questions on this then fire away!

[linnez]

Are clyde marine accepting aplications for January ? i thought you had to apply after the 1st of october thats when i plan too

[Martyboy]

Better hurry up then, sounds like they have already started

[linnez]

I know gonna have to apply tonight or tomorrow i think ahahahah ;D

[TheYeti]

Recently completed my cadetship at Glasgow so can summarise it for you:

HNC: 3 Years, OOW level theory stuff only. Have to sit MCA orals and writtens. When you go back to do your chief mates you have to go to college for 9 months to learn all your chief mate theory before doing chief mate orals and MCA writtens.

HND: I'm not sure if Glasgow still offer this actually, think you might have to do the 3 year HNC then stay on after for a few months completion of that to do the HND element, provided your company would be willing to pay for it (they probably won't). Anyway on this course on top of all the HNC OOW theory you would have to do the chief mate theory as well. Have to sit OOW orals and writtens to get your ticket. When you go back to do your chief mates ticket you go to college for 3 months for a refresher on the chief mates theory. Have to to cheif mate orals and writtens.

PD: 3 Years, in phase 1 you do the HNC, in phase 3 you do the HND plus modules on leadership, communication and project management to cover the PD side of things which are assessed through projects done when you are at sea in phase 4. These exempt you from the OOW & chief mate MCA written exams (however the chief mate exemption is being removed in 2017 so probably won't apply to you). To get your OOW ticket you just have to do writtens. When you do your chief mates you only have to go back for 3 months and only have to do orals currently, although as I mentioned this will be changing.

I did the PD and it is a ridiculously intense course because of the amount of work you have to do in such a short space of time. A lot of people weren't prepared for this and the drop out/getting fired rate was quite high (around 50%). Phase one is the worst where you will have exams every other day for the best part of a month towards the end (not an exaggeration). The PD projects I mentioned are actually not that difficult but you do have to waffle a lot. I think I wrote about 10,000 words for each of them, some people wrote more, some wrote a lot less.

The course you go for really depends on your own ability level and motivation. If you are willing to work hard and have good highers/have been to uni before etc then the PD should be doable and whilst I moaned about the workload at the time, when it came to some of my mates on the HNC having to do their writtens and seeing what they had to study, I was quite glad I didn't have to do them. If you are not so confident of your maths and want things at a bit of a slower pace then do the HNC. Changing between them now shouldn't be difficult and you can go up to the PD in the first few weeks of college but not back the other way. A few people jumped up from the HNC to the PD when I was there and found it difficult and dropped out.

Hope that clarifies it a bit. Any questions on this then fire away!

A very comprehensive response, thank you! Definitely gives me more of an idea of what is going on. I only have maths at GCSE level so the HNC is potentially a better option, to begin with anyway. I have been to uni before but I didn't complete my degree so not sure that counts for anything! I will check with Clyde Marine if the HND is still an option as it seems to sit in a good middle ground between HNC and PD.

Thanks again!

[TheYeti]

Are clyde marine accepting aplications for January ? i thought you had to apply after the 1st of october thats when i plan too

Not sure mate... I applied in August (I think) so too late for the September intake. At my interview they told me that I was pretty much first in the door for the January intake so I wouldn't stress out too much! I would apply now though!

Good luck

[linnez]

Yerh dude well done ;D , i failed my interview for september with clyde , completely messed it up but if i get a 2nd chance for january i know what to expect just a learning curve for me , At the end of the interview what questions did you ask ?