Warsash Chief Mates Timetable

[Charley]

I am needing to tell my employer how much study leave I need next year.Does anyone know when people take orals exams if they are on the April intake of the Warsash Post HND course (approximately)?The Warsash course information says the course is "15 weeks + MCA Orals", so can I expect to take orals in week 16 or week 25?Thanks in advance!

[alistairuk]

I am needing to tell my employer how much study leave I need next year.Does anyone know when people take orals exams if they are on the April intake of the Warsash Post HND course (approximately)?The Warsash course information says the course is "15 weeks + MCA Orals", so can I expect to take orals in week 16 or week 25?Thanks in advance!

Depends if the college has block booked slots in Southampton - the MCA went through a period of not allowing them to do this - although this seems to change each year... In which case it will be whenever you arrange your Orals with whatever MCA Office you are using.

Email and ask Warsash admissions team.

[Hatchorder]

Don't quote me on this but my son is off back to Warsash in November to do his Chief Mates. He is an FD cadet so his course is a lot shorter. Basically he has 6 weeks plus orals, and from the information I have they will do 4 weeks revision and 2 weeks for the NAEST (M) and HELM (M) in that time. The "Proficiency in Medical Care" is not part of the training and is a separate week, and you must have it before you sit your orals. When he gets to the college they apply for his NOE and his Orals exam in the first couple of days and the intention is that he will complete his training and courses by 15th December and he will have his orals before Xmas. His employer is allowing him 2 weeks at the end of the course to do his orals so sometime between 15th December and the New Year he is hoping to get it all out of the way before Xmas. So, I think that they try to get you in within a couple of weeks, providing their are the examiners available of course, and dependant on the number of Orals applicants there are.

He then has to go and do all his refreshers for his other courses, such as Firefighting, straight after so it looks like he will get home around the 12th October, have to do 1 week of Medical Care, go to College on 6th November for 6 weeks, have 2 weeks to do his orals and then do all his short course refreshers in January!

Now I have no idea if he will be able to do his "Proficiency in Medical Care" because Warsash only have courses running 9th October and 6th November and for the latter date he will be starting his Mates course. For the Former he will still be at sea............. So maybe he will have to do his course, come home for Xmas and then go back and do his "Proficiency in Medical Care" in January and then sit his Orals...... Seems daft to me. Anyone know where a "Proficiency in Medical Care" is running in the last 2 weeks of October?

Since writing the above, which was not sitting properly with me, I have rung the MCA and spoken to both the examiners office and the Certification department and then rung Warsash.

First of all you do NOT need your "Proficiency in Medical Care" to apply for your NOE. You can sit your Orals without it, and then sit your "Proficiency in Medical Care" and then apply for your COC. When I spoke to Warsash and told them it said that people HAD to have their "Proficiency in Medical Care" before they sat their orals, and asked if it was a specific condition of theirs they replied "No", it is basically an ambiguous statement that they have on their website and I have asked them to correct it. You cannot apply for your CoC until you have your "Proficiency in Medical Care".

The next question I asked of the MCA was their closing dates over the Xmas period. Basically they have 4 orals slots a day on a Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday in Southampton and once the course finishes there are only 12 orals slots, and one is already booked, and they are first come first served for those that apply with their NOE. Warsash have said there are 16 on their course for November so some of the candidates WILL be taken their Orals in the New Year.

Warsash Block Book Orals for the summer but have no preferential treatment any other time of the year, so it looks like quite a few will be doing their orals after Xmas.

In all likelihood, depending on number of attendees on the course and other orals bookings you should expect to do your orals within a month of finishing the course......... So I would suggest allowing that much extra as well as any other courses you will need to do.

Can someone correct me if any of this is wrong!

Ian.

[CharlieDelta]

Warsash Chief Mates Timetable

Might see him for PMC, looks like January for me too. I'm doing post HND, Sept-Dec, no idea about orals but would prefer to have them over with before Christmas!


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[Lewis]

Why wait till you get there to apply for your NOE?
My company makes us apply before college. They last 5 years I think no reason not to apply now.

[EH75]

What Lewis said. The amount of people on my chief mates course who hasn't even applied for an NOE by the time we started college surprised me. I sent my application away the day I got back from sea and had already booked my oral by the time i started college. I realise that may not always be possible due to when people come back from sea but advice would essentially be apply for an NOE asap then as soon as you have it in hand send it off to book your oral.

[perksy121]

Hi all, I did the November Mates course last year and I would be wary about trusting the college to get orals dates for you. I got my NoE sorted well in advance and managed to get an exam booked for January but most people on my course didn't even have their NoEs when they started. They did kick up a fuss about orals and credit to the college, Warsash got the MCA to do an extra week of exams for our class so we were all able to do our orals before Christmas. But if you can, I still recommend booking an exam just in case, you can easily change your date if Warsash have block of exams booked.

Hatchorder, I work for the same company as your son and sitting his PMC after Christmas shouldn't be a problem (though book it soon as they fill fast), the only slight inconvenience may be that he has to wait till his next leave to send off for his new CoC as the MCA are taking about 4-6 weeks to return them.

Hope that's helped, feel free to PM me with any questions.

[Hatchorder]

Thanks for the comments people - helped me a little whilst I was doing the research. The Hatchling gets home the 13th October, so only has 3 weeks off before college starts. I have sent him the paperwork and he can fill out everything for his NOE and get it posted first day home. That way he will be 3 weeks ahead of others going to college. I have seen a note that the MCA are taking up to 6 weeks to turn around NOE's so he will be in time to do his Orals before Xmas, if he gets in quickly enough. I will talk to him about booking the PMC for January on his behalf - unfortunately the internet on his ship is down still so we are spending a fortune on satellite calls at the moment. He also needs to refresh his Firefighting etc in January as well, so that is another couple of weeks he needs to do. Then, by my calculation he still has over a months leave owing - so he is not due to be back at sea until late Feb. So providing he passes his orals and his PMC he will be able to send that off at the end of the first week of Jan and have it back before he goes away to sea.

Surely if he communicates that clearly to them they will understand and give him a date to go away after the end of Feb or the beginning of March? He has to do all the refreshers anyway - otherwise his ticket is not valid.

Thanks,

Ian.

[perksy121]

Shouldn't be a problem going away end of Feb/beginning of March. He just needs to communicate that to his crewing manager sooner rather than later as they usually start drawing up a rough plan around 6 months in advance.