Sponsors that have a good reputation for employing after training

[joebrown95]

Which sponsorship companies are well known for offering employment at the end of training?

[bobofinga]

BP , Shell , Northern Marine , Maersk , Cruise Industry - (Carnival , Holland America , Princess) , Offshore companies - (North Star , Gulf , Farstad , Vroon) ... to name a few.

[SeaDog_84]

Whatever you do, avoid North Star.

[Pinkscampi]

Whatever you do, avoid North Star.

Why?

[gadget123]

Definitely avoid dry cargo unless you can get with maersk, but even then you aren't guaranteed a job. Tankers are better but not great. Try and stick with passenger or offshore companies, they are the only sectors with any hope of a future for british junior officers.

[SeaDog_84]

North Star are awful, they mainly have standby vessels, though they do have a couple of PSV's. However they are mostly crewed by ex fisherman who have a dispensation to work on standby vessels. As a cadet you will learn next to nothing on standby vessels. There is no traffic, there is no cargo work, chart corrections on NS vessels are done by Thomas Gunn rather than by the 2/O's such is the quality of their personnel. No one has a clue about stability, 7 deg gyro errors are apparently acceptable I could go on and on and on...

On the plus side with standby vessels; you get to play in rescue boats, if you are lazy then the pay is excellent, you get to do a lot of ship handling, and you will find out very quickly if you are prone to seasickness.

[bobofinga]

Most of what you have said I agree with SeaDog BUT the question is about getting a job and North Star offer nearly all their cadets jobs... which is more than can be said for most companies.

And the training on the PSV's is generally good but yes the ERRV's are terrible at best.

[EH75]

And of course you can get equally as crap training with some other companies with absolutely no chance of a job at the end. Swings and roundabouts...

[SeaDog_84]

That is true, you will more than likely get a job post cadetship, but just be aware that you will have a very "limited" experience doing a cadetship on ERRV's (standby vessels).

One of the very satisfying occassions during my cadet ship was when I unofficially had the watch (Captain was on the bridge pc doing paperwork) heading up the Dover TSS. I informed the Captain we were approaching the crossing point to head up to the Sunk TSS.

"Can you handle it?"

.....one short brown pants moment later

"yes"

he didn't even look up from his pc.

You won't even have a chance of getting that on ERRV's, and trust me you don't want to be short on those type of experiences when you qualify as an OOW, you want to be able to handle your responsibilities with confidence.

[EH75]

Yeah there's probably an argument to be made that you should only be allowed to do a certain percentage of your cadetship on standby vessels. I mean if you are spending say, 10 months out of 12 dodging about next to a rig and not going anywhere I would imagine that's not much better than being alongside? I haven't done it myself so I could be wide of the mark there but that's the impression I get.

[bobofinga]

That can be said for so many vessels though...

Construction , pipe laying , dive support , well intervention etc.

And the thing is , most of these ships that don't get any 'real navigation' are the types of ships that still employ Brits.

So again SeaDog I do agree but also disagree with you at the same time.

P.S. North star don't put their cadets on ERRV for more than 6 months of their sea time however I know Vroon do full cadetships on ERRV..

[laura]

It's a big problem for cadets in my company and I'm sure across much of the offshore sector, I was desperate to get on a supply boat so I could do 'proper cargo work' and get a bit of sailing in. I was lucky and got some decent worlwide passages in with a few trips of up to three weeks actually sailing, my last two deck cadets had no more than 24 hours 'transit times' and then weeks on DP, which although is good experience is not really the best way to go about things as a cadet, to understand DP properly you need to get a feel for her properly- manual manouvering and steering, otherwise it's no better than a bad computer game with a bad player.

I did have to point out to an offsigning cadet who I only met briefly that a DP watch was considered a 'navigational watch' and therefore counted towards watchgoing time, which he was not aware of.

It would be almost impossible to get your seatime onboard a construction vessel otherwise and I think it has its merits for cadets who are at the end of their cadetship (or beginning: chipping and painting is pretty universal), it is not so good for those in the middle, a week alongside mobilising, followed by maybe a day's transit and then weeks on DP, then back in for crewchange/ mob every 2-4 weeks. DP is great experience to have as a cadet, but it often means a lack of navigation experience which is far more important at that early stage.

I see the NI is trying to stop cadets being able to gain DP time which is ridiculous, we should be opening up the opportunities for cadets and DP isn't exactly rocket science.

[bobofinga]

The DP time a cadet can get whilst onboard is only 30 stages unless they have completed DP Basic and Simulator I'm pretty sure

[laura]

Yeah but the requirements have changed, I did both DP courses while a cadet and was only two weeks away from getting my full DP ticket when I went back to college for orals...

One of my recent cadets had also put himself through DP but I don't think he can register his seatime before he has a CoC, he says the guy on the course was really shirty with him because he was a cadet... I'll need to go have a shuft at the NI website again... The requirements have changed a lot recently I believe.

A UK cadet with offshore experience is a far better candidate for a DP ticket than a so called 'DPO trainee' who is being exploited by a manning agency in the far east (as they are trainees, and are contracted into working for several years to make up for the agency funding this course and getting them DP time) who has never seen an offshore vessel in his life, or done the smallest amount of ship handling beyond helming. Then as soon as they are qualified- they are off, you spend a year training them, they get a $2 pay rise and you don't seem them for dust... then you get a new trainee and so it continues....

[laura]

The DP time a cadet can get whilst onboard is only 30 stages unless they have completed DP Basic and Simulator I'm pretty sure

Ah yeah, sorry misunderstood there... yup it's DP basic, familiarisation and only 30 days- what a bunch of tools.

They should be making it easier for UK cadets to get jobs... a case of 'well I'm alright Jack' indeed.