Opinions needed regarding British Deck Cadets

[ewan.davies.thomson]

Hi

My name is Ewan Thomson and I am a Deck Cadet with Gardline Marine (survey/research company) studying at Plymouth University. I am currently working off the coast of the Republic of Congo, in and out of Pointe Noire (A place I do not reccomend for a holiday)

I am conducting a study into the training and education of British deck cadets as part of the 3rd year of study, which will later go on to form the basis of my dissertation. I would be very grateful if you could spare a few moments to fill out an online, multiple choice questionnaire and share your thoughts regarding British Deck Cadets and/or any opinions on the Merchant Navy Training Board Scheme itself. (Section for further comments available on the questionnaire)

For Officers / Masters with experience of British Deck Cadets onbaord:
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...TThKSEdtLXc6MQ

You are in one of the best positions to comment on how competent the British Deck Cadets are and as such, the state of the education system.

Any newly qualified Officer's , it would be great to share your views on the cadet questionnaire regarding how well you feel your education has prepared you for your new position.

For newly qualified Deck Officers
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/...cU1fMWZJa0E6MQ
I look forward to your responses. Any further questions / problems, just let me know.

Thanks, Ewan

[noworries182]

Hi Ewan,

I had to do a dissertation for my 4th year BSc, mine was on 'the future developments of AIS' pretty boring stuff. I'v just filled out your questionnaire for you, i put the following quote

"I think that cadet competency various a lot depending on where they have trained and what company they work for and also the level of commitment to their work. I find it very hard to rate them all as one collective as you get some that are very competent because of the level of work and effort that they have put in where as others who seem not to care."

i do find it hard to judge all cadets at once as your survey does, there is so many different types and level of cadets however i know its very hard for you to survey this (almost impossible) and i also know how hard it is to get people to reply to your survey as i had to do one and only got 6 replies from 100 sent out (3 of them were friends). If you need some direct quotes or a direct questionaaire/interview with an officer (over email or skype), i would be more than happy to help. good luck with it and try not to get distracted by drink, women, xbox, PS3, phone, dust, shiny objects, anything else!

(p.s. you say you're working for guardline of the congo, im joining a AHTS ship off cameroon/EG next week, whats the piracy situation like round there?)

[ewan.davies.thomson]

Hi

Firslt, thank you very much for filling out the questionnaire and subsequesnt comments; you know how helpful it is.

I understand that cadet competency will vary with the factors you have mentioned and one of the aims is to find out how much those factors do affect the education of the cadet. (Place of study, for example) The level of commitment of the individual cadet is a very large factor which may well be an outcome of the study. However, I wonder if, given a good level of education ashore and a good level of training onboard, whether the laziest, least motivated cadet would still be competent in his job. That is, for example, he knows how to complete chart corrections, T's and P's etc, it may just be that he is too lazy to actually do them properly.. My point is, he can know how to do them, even if he cannot be bothered, does not care etc (in which case the education has still suceeded, it is a seperate factor, motivation, upbringing, personality etc that has stopped him correcting the charts.) ?

If I have any further questions to ask, it would be very useful to have your email address?

And as for Cameroon, EG, you should be fine. I was working up in Gabon last week and had no problems there. The problems seem to lie to the North: Nigeria and Togo predominently. We should getting the weekly pirate update from MAST any day now which I can send you if it's of interest?

And bring Euros! I'd imagine it's the same situation. You get a much better rate than for $ and as for ?, don't even bother. And be prepeared for prostitution and corruption on mass. It's chaos. 5 Port State Control visits in 4 weeks!

Thanks again for your help, hope it all goes well,

Ewan

[noworries182]

Ewan, sorry i haven't gotten back to you sooner, i'v just seen your new thread and remembered I replied. my email address is below, feel free to email me with any questions i'd be more than happy to help out, as i said i know its hard to get replies, just like the study you are doing most people 'just can't be arsed' doing things. so yer i'm always happy to help.

[email protected]

John

p.s. where are you studying??

[the-mariner]

What an awesome, well prepared survey! Was very happy to donitbandveven happier it was that easy to use!!

Good luck!