Training Record Book Specimen Signatures

[marco14196]

Afternoon everyone.

I have a quick question. Are bosuns allowed to sign off deck related tasks in the training record book. I've been at sea for a month now and my officers on board and the bosun insist that the bosun is allowed to sign off these tasks in the TRB. My training manager with SSTG is telling me otherwise however. Should I allow him to sign tasks in the book or not. Thought? Need help with this urgently.

[GuinnessMan]

I would check the guidance but if the training officer is saying no, then no is the answer.

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[ETwhat?]

Technically, if your DSTO agrees that the bosun is a suitably qualified and experienced person to evaluate that a task has been done in a proficient manner then yes the guidance allows that. (unless they have changed the wording)
However.... If your training manager is saying it has to be an officer then do what you are told just get STGC to email you saying who they want it limited to, and show it to everyone on the ship. they may have done it differently before but just try and convience them.

[Smiley]

I agree with the other two posters. It's perfectly fine to say to the guys on board that your office only likes the deck officers to sign your book. At the end of the day even if it is actually allowed, it's better to stick with what your training officer tells you. It's not worth the hassle to go against them. If you got the bosun to sign it and further down the line there was a problem, your training officer would not be best pleased and you could find yourself in bother. Just stick to what they tell you. I agree with the suggestion of getting who should sign the TRB in writing from your company to show to folk on board if you have any problems.

[condeh]

If I recall correctly from the HND portfolio, the specimen signature sheet page requires the signatory to enter their CoC details. So a CoC is req'd.....?

[ETwhat?]

Not CoC - it requires rank, certificate grade and certificate no. expiry so assuming that your bosun has some piece of paper saying he is a bosun then that would fill that option. I think it does come down to how people read the document and what becomes 'standard practice' either rightly or wrongly.

[AltCtrDelighted]

Why would he say no ? Your DSTO is getting paid to ensure that you get proper training, so why not work for it ? I don't think the Bosun can sign, unless he has a CoC. I had a case where an Engine cadet faced problems during exams (India) as he had taken my signatures on electrical tasks upon instruction of the 2E. I wasn't in posession of ETO's CoC which seemed to be the issue. Find out what the company's SMS says about training of cadets and shove it in his face .... politely.

[GuinnessMan]

Why would he say no ? Your DSTO is getting paid to ensure that you get proper training, so why not work for it ? I don't think the Bosun can sign, unless he has a CoC. I had a case where an Engine cadet faced problems during exams (India) as he had taken my signatures on electrical tasks upon instruction of the 2E. I wasn't in posession of ETO's CoC which seemed to be the issue. Find out what the company's SMS says about training of cadets and shove it in his face .... politely.

Indian system of CoC's is a little odd and sorting out sea service certificates for them is a pain in the a*se! They are all required to report their "propelling time", so trying to work that out for a shed load of riding squad blokes who all signed on on different dates all claiming various bits and bobs was a rather interesting exercise...

I think the MCA are fine with the ETO are signing it? I vaguely remember the ETO signing stuff for me?

[EH75]

How thoroughly do the MCA actually check these? I mean do they have the facility to check the validity of say an Indian or Chinese COC number that has been written into someone's TRB? Are they really sitting scrutinising every single signature that is in a TRB to make sure it exactly matches the specimen signature?

[GuinnessMan]

How thoroughly do the MCA actually check these? I mean do they have the facility to check the validity of say an Indian or Chinese COC number that has been written into someone's TRB? Are they really sitting scrutinising every single signature that is in a TRB to make sure it exactly matches the specimen signature?

This is nothing but mere speculation, so don't quote me, but is it not the college who do all the pre-screening and the MCA just look at it during the Oral and during the random sampling process (unless there is a risk factor which means they look at stuff under the microscope)? It was slightly different for us as our TRB's were different, so the college went through it all with fine tooth comb, all good so NVQ was issued and MCA examiner looked in it's general direction but that was really about it.

[EH75]

I'm pretty sure the college never even looked at mine when I was there. I spent 3 years at the place and my course tutor still didn't know my name by the end of it so I wouldn't particularly trust them in ascertaining the authenticity of a Chinese COC number & signature.

My sponsoring company had a brief look through it. By brief I mean literally our training officer had a quick flick through and signed each of our TRBs whilst we were all in the room, couldn't have spent more than a couple of minutes on each. Again, not enough time to have a proper look at things.

The only other time anyone looked at it was when I posted it to the MCA to get my NOE for OOW although how much they actually looked at it who knows. Nothing was looked at in my oral apart from my discharge book. I took my TRB & Nav/Ops workbook but it stayed in my bag throughout. In fact no one has ever scrutinised my Nav workbook, seems like a bit of a waste of time looking back at it.

[Lewis]

The mca take all TRBs it's the workbooks they sample. Not saying they look closely.