HNC Advice

[Unregistered]

Hello all.

Recently I've been lucky to be offered a HNC Engine cadetship with one of the main recruiting agencies. I have a few questions I'd to ask.

I'm guessing the HNC will put me at a disadvantage when I'm looking for a job; particularly when I'll be against people who have the HND's and FD's. Will it be a struggle once I'm qualified?

Will I 'miss out' on other subject's I might not get on the HNC? But are on the HND and FD?

Also I'm currently studying HND Electrical Engineering on a two year course which I only started a few months ago so I'd also like to do the cadetship at HND level, instead of going down a level. I understand places are extremely limited in January, so would it be worth asking my recruiting agency if they might reconsider me for the HND?

Any answers would be great and would be greatly appreciated.

(I know this really isn't suited to the anonymous forum but I really need to make my username less revealing! Haha!)

[CallumA]

Hey,

Now I don't know if this is the same for you're company or even for engineers, but I recently started my Deck HNC course and we've been told that we will finish the 3 year HNC, then at the end we may get the option to do an extra 26 weeks at college to bump it up to HND level.

As I said, I'm not sure this is the same for Engineers but I guess one of them will be along to add to this eventually.

Hope I helped, and good luck.

[ETwhat?]

There really isn't any difference between the courses both options give you the first ticket which is all you need for a job afterwards,

If you feel that the HNC would be a step down and you might not be challenged etc then yeah talk to the company they will be the only ones who will give you the answers you may also find that FD and HND courses are only run at September. You might be able to get held and considered for a later start but it will take a phone call to the company

[Martyboy]

There always seems to be confusion about this. The HND route involves you doing an NC in your first year, then you go to sea, then you come back, you do an HNC and the SQA written exams, you can then apply for your officer of the watch ticket after passing your oral exam.

Afterwards you can do an HND which is required for your Chief officers ticket.... everyone who has an HND generally does an HNC to begin with. It is possible to do the HND without an HNC as far as SQA is concerned, however most colleges require it. I see Warsash claim to have a course preparing cadets for HND level study, and then jumping straight to HND, missing out the HNC, but I'm not sure if that's a play on words or not.

However to sum up my experience....

NC- Introduction, so you arrive on a ship with some idea of what's going on.
HNC- Required academic qualification for your OOW Deck certificate of competency after passing written and oral exams.
HND- Required academic qualification for issue of Chief Officer/Master Certiface of competency after passing written and orals.

http://www.sqa.org.uk/sqa/44839.html suggest reading this.

[Martyboy]

Got this off the MNTB website:

Deck officer trainees who are successful in the HNC and HND programmes approved by the MNTB and meet standards set by the MCA for assessment of STCW-related content need only to pass the appropriate SQA/MCA Safety Examinations at each level to complete the written requirements for MCA certification. The details are as follows:

HNC together with SQA/MCA Examinations in Navigation and Stability & Operations meet the written requirements for OOW certification deck officer certificates;

HND together with SQA/MCA Examinations in Navigation and Stability & Structure meet the written requirements for Chief Mate and Master certification.


The Oral examination must be passed at each level and the relevant short course requirements must be met

[Unregistered]

Thanks for the help guys. Also cheers for that link Martyboy, that really cleared up a lot of confusion.

[gadget123]

This is interesting and quite surprising about the difference between HNC/D/FD.

http://www.nuwavepersonnel.com/marine-jobs.html?jobaction=details&jobid=1233

[Chiefy]

A lot of companies do similar for 3rd engineers, if the have a class 4 they get less then with a class 2 who get less than class 1, all in the same rank, once you are above 3rd then normally the distinction goes away.

[Martyboy]

Yea, Maersk pay 2k extra for people with HND V HNC