Work at sea

[paddyeth]

Hi everyone
Just wondered how much academic work you have to do when not doing your duties on the ship. Is your own time on the ship spend studying? Or is there not much to do? Thanks
Paddy

[KeiranNewberry]

During my interview, my training officer told me that I was expected to do about two hours a day of my academic work at sea. I guess its different person to person and company to company - and how much you have to do and how much work you want to put in!

[endure]

I'm very tempted to post a picture of me at sea when I was off watch but I suppose I'd better try and set a good example to the youngsters

[paddyeth]

Getting mixed signals here haha! My company told us they will give us a day off duties every week to do studies. I was just wondering if this would be enough or would i be tucking myself into bed with school books every night...

[Silvertop]

We usually give cadets 2 half days of study per week, and expect them to it at least do the same amount of study time in their own time. They also normally get Saturday afternoons and Sunday mornings off, but Sunday morning are usually routines so they assist with them.

[Benr42]

As a cadet we were usually given Sunday off and on the odd occasion Saturday afternoons . It all depends on your company. But you are expected to be proactive and do work in your own time. You'll still have plenty of time to relax so don't worry about that.

[Benr42]

Don't listen to your company either. Everything changes when you get on ship. What your Cpt-C/O or your C/E-2/E says goes

[Chiefy]

Depening whats happening depends on what time you get. Deep sea I try to give 1 day a week to the cadets, but that said they also get most suundays to themselves and sat pm if I remember, but there is still time to do your own work, remember you get out what you put in.

It all depends from ship to ship and management team to management team

[AlternativeNavs]

I always remember returning to college after my first sea phase and attending the lecture where we had to hand in our 'portfolios and assessments'. There was a distinct difference in the volume of submitted work between those who spent their time on cruise vessels and those who spent there time on tankers and containers. Obviously there were a few exceptions but on the whole it was a pattern to be observed.

I spent a lot of my time writing reports, referencing work and constructing work for assignments. That being said I still had time to relax, although you soon realise that putting in the effort when you have the time helps no end in the long run. The same can be said for college exams and assignments, i'm sure that there is nothing worse than having a bunch of exams stacking up along with re-sits.

[samsezhi]

It really varies from company to company ship to ship and college to college. I had quite a lot of free time and being on the FD had a fair bit of work to do. However if you are HND/C then you won't have work based learning to do on top of your TRB

[Midge]

I have some questions if people could clarify as when this topic comes up under different threads it all seems to vary, now it makes no difference to me but it might help potential / new cadets perhaps?

for FD what in addition to filling in the TRB grey boxes ticking bit do they do at sea.? What are these 'reports or written work people get asked to do, is it something that forms part of the TRB, or is college work and gets marked or submitted and part of the course, or is it something the MCA has along with the TRB to be able to sit the oral exam, or something companies want?

HND what do they have to do in addition to their TRB or is their TRB different to the FD cadets and is this work covered in a different way.

What are cadets studying when they are at sea exactly 'stuff' for what? To do their TRB, college, or just what they are learning on board or for reports?

Before you ask I could ask my cadet but he's away before he gets sent off on a ship somewhere soon, and it wouldn't then be of use to anyone else who might find it useful to know either. I do recall S4 mentioning it was a good idea to keep up with whatever this 'stuff' is and not leave it to the last minute, but never understood why or who wanted it.

[AlternativeNavs]

FD - A TRB that contains 'tasks' although no formal requirements for reports as part of it. Cadets are expected to keep a 'workbook of evidence' (operations and navigation) based on what they get involved with onboard. This evidence normally takes the form of short written reports with photographs and ship specific copies of procedures etc. This 'workbook of evidence' needs to be submitted to the MCA on application for a NOE before the Oral exam takes place. In addition, the college may set a number of assignments that need to be completed as part of the academic degree study. At Warsash, these took the form of reports (2000 words ish) in the first sea phase and a longer mini-dissertaion in the final sea phase. These assignments, although handed in with the workbook, are primarily for the FD side of things - although it all counts as 'evidence' in the eyes of the MCA.

HND - The TRB, also containing tasks, also contains report requirements. These reports take the form of progressive study based upon the different sections of the TRB. The TRB is much more prescriptive in this respect compared to that of the FD TRB. Although the cadets needs to keep a separate 'workbook of evidence' similar to that of the FD cadets a lot of time can be taken up getting the HND reports completed. Again both form 'evidence'.

From my experience the FD cadets have it less prescriptive although they still need to complete a similar amount of work.

[zuluonezero]

On my ship (PSV operating out of Rio) myself and the other cadet had to study on watch when we had a chance. Obviously there were limitations to this; during the night it was myself and the 2nd mate on watch, so it wouldn't have been safe to study. If we were working alongside an installation we'd be busy as well, so the only time we could ever really study was during watch time in port when we had no specific duties. Studying outside of watch hours was nigh on impossible as we worked 6 hours on/off.

[Lewis]

Remember the officers on board aren't experts on the training programme if you need time to study or complete assignments let them know. I had issue on my last ship working 70 to 80 hours a week came to end of my trip captain asked if I would stay bit. Said I couldnt because I had my PD projects to write. He became very apologetic and said if I needed more time for college work I should have asked and it wouldn't have been a problem.
That being said if you ask for time off to do this and then they find you having a lie in or watching dvds they won't be pleased. Also you will have time off between ships nothing stops you using this to write up rough notes etc. Time on ship is limited so make most of it, there are a lot of things you can do on ship that will be impossible to do at home.

[zuluonezero]

We did mention it to the officers, its just they wanted us to work and fit our studies around that. I'm not complaining though; because myself and the other cadet were happy to work and do more or less any job that was asked of us, the Chief Officer who we signed off under was happy to sign us off on about 2/3rds of the tasks in the TRB. We got plenty of rules signed off, and a reasonable amount of steering time so I am actually happy that I spent more time working than studying, I definitely have a better understanding of the job, vessel and operations because of it.