STCW Short Courses

[Clanky]

With the recently introduced nonsense that all (or some) short courses have to be renewed every 5 years, does this mean that you will need a valid fire-fighting certificate to be able to renew CoC or just that you will need to have a valid fire-fighting certificate to join a ship.

I am assuming that if it is for renewing CoC then, to renew a UK CoC the certificate will have to be issued by a MCA approved training centre (ie in the UK), if it is the latter can I do all my short courses in Spain? Is there any chance that the UK would accept a Spanish fire-fighting and first aid certificate for revalidation of my CoC?

The thoughts of spending a couple of weeks in South Shields in the winter is not particularly appealing.

[thebrookster]

I thought that the STCW courses were country independent? I could well be wrong of course, but if the course meets STCW, then it meets STCW.

I know there are some stuff the MCA don't like, such as some of the Indian courses, but that was a question of how good the course was (bribery being par for the norm in many Asian countries!), wouldn't have thought there would be a problem.

That would be my thoughts anyway, it will be interesting to see what others think/know!!

[Lewis]

MGN 92 has a list of countries the MCA accept STCW courses from.

[Pilot Chris]

Dont hold me to this but I got the impression from recent updates that you have to go to the country of origin (which is a pain in the bum for me as I hold both a UK and Australian Class 1!) as I believe that the Manila amendments will aim to tighten up on fraudulent certification through 3rd party countries and also bundle in things such as ECDIS, Security endorsements, H.V and FF etc.

The relevant bits are here: (but fails to mention if countries outside the UK will be MCA approved)

Seafarers required to hold any of certificates of proficiency listed above shall, every five years,
provide evidence of having maintained the required standard of competence, to undertake the
tasks, duties and responsibilities specified in the tables listed above.
Seafarers revalidating their Certificates of Competency (CoC) after 1 January 2017 will be
required to submit documentary evidence of having completed MCA approved updatingrefresher training. There is no requirement to provide documentary evidence for having
completed updating-refresher training if a seafarer applies for CoC revalidation before 1
January 2017.
From 1 January 2017 Port State Control Officers may require seafarers to provide
documentary evidence of having maintained the required standard of competence, to
undertake the tasks, duties and responsibilities listed above. Presenting the documentary
evidence obtained on completing an MCA approved updating-refresher course will meet this
requirement.
Details of updating-refresher training will be published in a separate Marine Information Notice.

[GuinnessMan]

I like how they've worded that. It gives you a nice little opening that you don't need to do the full courses, just "refreshers" and that could be anything....

[Chiefy]

I was / am under the impression the GM's clause is also a nice little way through for Segaull / Videotel et al, to be able to say that computer based training also counts (or put it forward to MCA etc for approval) however it's all up in the air and he MCA needs to get it's shizzle together sooner rather than later

[YoungMariner]

The MCA only accepts certain countries STCW courses, a list of which doesn't appear to be published anywhere but they will confirm when you email them.
In Australia you have to do th full courses if you haven't got a letter from your employer saying that you have a certain amount of sea time and have attended on board drills and training. The MCA still haven't any clear answers in the UK.

[Clanky]

the mca still haven't any clear answers in the uk.

s.n.a.f.u.