Nearly 3 months off and we still aren't away!

[Anon Cadet]

Good Evening all.

I'm not sure if others will take this as a sensitive subject but I feel that it is.
I, along with a few other classmates from college, finish college in January and we still aren't at sea! Now that's nearly 3 months and we are obviously concerned, worried and frustrated as every day that passes is less sea time that we need. I am pretty sure that, out of the entire Phase (ND's and FD's, Deck and Engineers), we are the only ones still waiting. All 4 of us have called our company on several occasions and we never get any answers, no matter how much we push; it simply appears like nothing is being done (I have mentioned that to the company training officer).
I'm just wondering if this has happened to any cadets before? Would anybody suggest getting in touch with the college or perhaps a louder voice to get the company to work harder to get us off to sea? or even any other suggestions? Our voice just doesn't seem to be loud enough to get things done.
Obviously this is only phase 2 and if this is happening now, we are all concerned that if the same happens in phase , we will not get the necessary sea time to take our Orals. I joined the merchant navy to travel the world, do something different and challenging but all I'm doing is sitting around, spending money that I simply dont have and it is starting to take its toll!
Thanks in advance.

[CharlieDelta]

APPROVED
No company names though please.

[YoungMariner]

Do you have a training manager? What do they say? Next step contact the college see if the head lecturer can get involved, they are normally pretty good with that. Final step contact the MNTB or Nautilus for help in the worst case scenario. Essentially you could find yourself pushed behind so that you won't be able to go back to college with your phase.

Try to sort things amicably with the company first.

[Anon Cadet]

Do you have a training manager? What do they say? Next step contact the college see if the head lecturer can get involved, they are normally pretty good with that. Final step contact the MNTB or Nautilus for help in the worst case scenario. Essentially you could find yourself pushed behind so that you won't be able to go back to college with your phase.

Try to sort things amicably with the company first.

I cant say I know of a Training Manager, But It has come to the point where I feel talking to my company wont be amicable as it is that frustrating, not to mention it wont get us anywhere quicker. Naturally, I don't want to get their back up. That is a big concern, none of us want, nor deserve back-phasing. We have more than pulled our weight in Phase 1 and it is very disheartening to feel like we are just a file in the company's cabinet.
Thank you for your advice, I will contact the college first thing in the morning and hopefully the final step doesn't even come to mind!

[GuinnessMan]

Good Evening all.

I'm not sure if others will take this as a sensitive subject but I feel that it is.
I, along with a few other classmates from college, finish college in January and we still aren't at sea! Now that's nearly 3 months and we are obviously concerned, worried and frustrated as every day that passes is less sea time that we need. I am pretty sure that, out of the entire Phase (ND's and FD's, Deck and Engineers), we are the only ones still waiting. All 4 of us have called our company on several occasions and we never get any answers, no matter how much we push; it simply appears like nothing is being done (I have mentioned that to the company training officer).
I'm just wondering if this has happened to any cadets before? Would anybody suggest getting in touch with the college or perhaps a louder voice to get the company to work harder to get us off to sea? or even any other suggestions? Our voice just doesn't seem to be loud enough to get things done.
Obviously this is only phase 2 and if this is happening now, we are all concerned that if the same happens in phase , we will not get the necessary sea time to take our Orals. I joined the merchant navy to travel the world, do something different and challenging but all I'm doing is sitting around, spending money that I simply dont have and it is starting to take its toll!
Thanks in advance.

Having a fair idea who your training provider is I can tell you know that they are incredibly busy trying to find berths for all of you. It is unlikely that they have forgotten about, but the delay could be down to any number of things (lack of berths, vessel trading areas, etc). Without knowing who your sponsor is then I can't help you, but the best thing to do is to keep calling your training company on a daily basis. You won't fall behind, there is plenty of time for you to get your seatime in. I wouldn't bother contacting the college as there is nothing they can do to help you and this ain't the Army, we don't back phase people.

Heck, I had to wait 4 months for one ship once....

[Lewis]

Phone them first thing on Monday ask them if they have any information. Tell them you'll phone back at the end of the week. Then actually do phone back on Friday and ask again. Keep repeating the pattern. If you only phone once in a while it's easy to fob you off but if you phone regularly they will find it harder not to have answers for you.

Most important of all don't lose your temper not matter how much you think you have a right to, it will almost certainly not help.

[Anon Cadet]

Having a fair idea who your training provider is I can tell you know that they are incredibly busy trying to find berths for all of you. It is unlikely that they have forgotten about, but the delay could be down to any number of things (lack of berths, vessel trading areas, etc). Without knowing who your sponsor is then I can't help you, but the best thing to do is to keep calling your training company on a daily basis. You won't fall behind, there is plenty of time for you to get your seatime in. I wouldn't bother contacting the college as there is nothing they can do to help you and this ain't the Army, we don't back phase people.

That is what they have told me, but surely they would make their 'efforts' more obvious. We aren't even allowed to contact the sponsor however to chase it up ourselves. I understand that for phase 2, whatever sea time we get, if we join in the next couple of weeks we are fine, however if the same thing happens in phase 4 then we will struggle. Also, I have spoken to 2 phase 5 lads over phase 1 who had been backphased.

Thanks to you GM and also Lewis for your advice. The 4 of us are going to call the training company on Thursday, However after reading your advice I will message the other cadets and we will move it to tomorrow and follow your advice. Thanks again, I will restrain my temper, obviously I dont want to wind them up.

[bobofinga]

Persistance is the key , i went 3 months without hearing back from a certain company.

[EH75]

this ain't the Army, we don't back phase people.

Almost half my class have been back-phased due to not having enough sea time by the end of phase 4...

[GuinnessMan]

Almost half my class have been back-phased due to not having enough sea time by the end of phase 4...

Any particular reason why they couldn't get their sea time other than the usual wailing of "my company's ****!"?

[EH75]

They work for a company in the North Sea who operate mainly stand by boats and appear to have too many cadets for the number of berths available. Most of the guys have ended up having to do a month on a month off for the majority of their sea phase with a couple of double headers thrown in when they had space. Due to this set up it was impossible to get their 12 months by the time we were all due to come back to college, so they get put in with the intake after us.

On a related note my intake's sea phase had to get extended by a couple of weeks to accomadate the number of people who were pushed for time and I know of a couple of people deep sea who have had to do really long trips in order to get their sea time in because they had 2-3 months off at the start of the sea phase. Not an ideal situation but they did get all their time in (just).

[internationalapple]

Sounds like the familiar pattern of the infamous ZODIAC.

[effiestephy]

I was just going to say, I know far too many ZODIAC cadets that I've seen complain time and time again on Facebook regarding their sea time, and waiting months to join a ship!

Sounds like the familiar pattern of the infamous ZODIAC.