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The Career Development pages relate to the technical professional seafaring roles on board.

For further Career Development information on Hotel and Catering, Hospitality & Support Services and Opportunities Ashore please go to Roles.

Career Development

Ships Officers generally work in two departments - Navigation (often called Deck) and Engineering and this begins when you enrol as an officer trainee! The education and training programmes for each discipline are a mixture of academic work combined with practical training, at college/university and at sea.

The programmes will equip you with professional seafaring certification along with a degree or higher national and other recognised qualifications to give you a lifetime of rewarding challenges. Seafaring certification and qualifications give you a wealth of opportunity - in the longer term this can be either at sea or ashore.

For each of the job roles mentioned below you will have to hold the designated seafarer Certificate of Competency, which is issued by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. You will receive the first of these (the Officer of the Watch certificate, also known as the OOW certificate) when you complete your Merchant Navy Training Board approved education and training course which is delivered through one of the maritime colleges/universities (click here for a list of them).

Further certificates will be gained as you increase your experience at sea and pass the required examinations. You will need to have the certificate for the next job role before you can be promoted into it - so it's important to try and get them as soon as you can!

Below you can see the epaulettes (the ornamental shoulder piece or decoration used to show job roles (ranks) in the Merchant Navy), please click on an epaulette below for more information on that job role.

Ratings work in navigation (deck), engineering and catering departments. Trainee ratings work towards the Navigational Watch Rating Certificate. Ratings are able to progress to officer status and the Slater Fund provides funding to help with this - see here.

For each of the ranks mentioned above you will have to hold a Certificate of Competency which is issued by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency. You will receive the first of these certificates (the Officer Of the Watch certificate, also known as the OOW certificate) when you complete your Merchant Navy Training Board approved training course which is delivered through one of the maritime institutions. A list of maritime institutions is available. Further certificates will be gained as you increase your experience at sea and pass the required examinations. You will need to have the Certificate for the next rank before you can be promoted into it - so it's important to get them as soon as you can!

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