STCW Basics: Safety Courses, Medicals and Certificates

Prerequisites

Read the earlier lessons in this course. You may already hold STCW basic training from the yacht route. The same certificates are valid on merchant ships. UK details follow the MCA's MSN 1856 (Amendment 1) and MSN 1858 (Amendment 1). Seafarers' rights follow the ILO Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (MLC).

Learning Objectives

• Explain what the STCW Convention and Code do, how they relate to national rules, and how they differ from the MLC.
• Tell apart a Certificate of Competency (CoC), a Certificate of Proficiency (CoP) and an endorsement.
• List the STCW basic training modules, the further courses officers need, and which ones must be updated every 5 years.
• State the seafarer medical rules: validity, colour vision and the ENG1.
• State the hours of rest limits and check a work schedule against them.
• Explain how a certificate is recognised under another flag.

What STCW Is

The International Convention on Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers (STCW) 1978 was substantially revised in 1995 and again by the 2010 Manila amendments. It has two parts:

• The Convention: the articles and the regulations, organised in chapters. Chapter II covers the deck department, chapter III the engine department, chapter IV radio, chapter VI emergency, safety, security and medical training, and chapter VIII watchkeeping.
• The STCW Code: Part A is mandatory and holds the competence tables, for example Table A-VI/1-1 for Personal Survival Techniques. Part B is guidance.

STCW sets minimum standards. Each state writes them into national law and may add to them. In the UK this is the Merchant Shipping (STCW) Regulations 2015, explained in MSN 1856 for merchant deck officers. Yacht certificates have their own 2022 regulations, explained in MSN 1858. The MLC 2006 is a separate convention covering seafarers' working and living conditions: minimum age, medicals, contracts, wages, hours, leave and repatriation. Medicals and hours of rest appear in both conventions.

The Three Kinds of Document

The medical (ENG1 in the UK) is not an STCW course certificate. It is required by both STCW and the MLC.

Basic Training: Everyone, Before Any Duties

STCW Section A-VI/1 says that anyone with designated safety or pollution-prevention duties must complete the relevant basic training before being assigned any shipboard tasks. The MCA requires the full set before your first voyage (MSN 1856, section 1.3; MSN 1858, section 1.5):

If you have designated security duties, for example on gangway watch on an ISPS ship, you need the higher Designated Security Duties certificate (Table A-VI/6-2).

Officer-Level Courses

Officers need more. These are the UK deck requirements (MSN 1856, section 10.3):

The 5-year rule. For every CoC application you must show that the updatable courses were completed or refreshed within the previous 5 years. To satisfy Port State Control, you must also carry that evidence on board (MSN 1856, section 10.3). A Master, and anyone in charge of medical care, needs Medical Care completed or updated within the last 5 years (section 10.8).

The Seafarer Medical

Rules (MLC Reg 1.2 and Standard A1.2):

• The certificate confirms that your hearing and sight, and colour vision where relevant, are satisfactory, and that you have no condition likely to be made worse by service at sea or to endanger others.
• It is valid for at most 2 years, or 1 year if you are under 18.
• A colour vision certificate is valid for at most 6 years.

UK practice (MSN 1856, section 12): the ENG1 is issued by an MCA-approved doctor. The MCA also accepts a medical from any country whose standards it recognises. The examination includes colour vision and visual acuity. Failing the standard means you will not get an unrestricted certificate, so the MCA strongly advises having the medical before you pay for training. Your ENG1 must be valid on the day your CoC is issued.

France: the certificat d'aptitude médicale, issued by the service de santé des gens de mer, does the same job.

Hours of Work and Rest

Both STCW (Regulation VIII/1, Section A-VIII/1) and the MLC (Reg 2.3, Standard A2.3) limit working hours to fight fatigue. Under the MLC, each flag state fixes either maximum hours of work or minimum hours of rest:

STCW uses the rest limits for watchkeepers. Three further rules apply:

• Rest may be split into no more than two periods, and one must be at least 6 hours long.
• The interval between consecutive rest periods must not exceed 14 hours.
• Musters and drills must be run so that they disturb rest as little as possible. If you are on call, for example with an unattended machinery space, and are called out, you must get compensatory rest.

Worked example: is this watch pattern legal?

A Second Officer keeps the 12 to 4 watch twice a day, and works 1 hour a day after the morning watch correcting charts.

1. Work: 00 to 04, 04 to 05 (corrections) and 12 to 16. That is 9 hours a day.
2. Rest: 05 to 12 (7 hours) and 16 to 24 (8 hours). That is 15 hours in 24, which meets the 10-hour minimum.
3. There are two periods, and one is at least 6 hours long, so this is fine.
4. The longest gap between rest periods is 12 to 16, or 00 to 05: 5 hours, well under 14.
5. Weekly rest: 15 times 7 = 105 hours, more than 77.

Now add arrival stations from 16:00 to 19:00, straight after the afternoon watch. Rest becomes 05 to 12 and 19 to 24: 12 hours in two periods, one of them 7 hours, so this is still legal. Now suppose a fire drill is also called at 21:00 for an hour. The evening rest splits into 19 to 21 and 22 to 24, which gives three periods. The total is still 12 hours, but rest may be divided into no more than two periods (MLC Standard A2.3), so the day is non-compliant unless compensatory rest is given. This is why the MLC says drills must be planned to disturb rest as little as possible. Records of hours must be kept and signed, and they are inspected.

Recognition Under Another Flag

• Your CoC is issued by one state. To serve as an officer on a ship of another flag, that flag must endorse it, through a Certificate of Equivalent Competency or flag state endorsement.
• Endorsements are normally only available for CoCs from states on the IMO "White List", the list of parties that have shown they give full effect to STCW. The MCA, for example, accepts White List CoCs as a basis for UK Chief Mate and Master certificates (MSN 1856, section 14).
• Recognition of course certificates varies. The MCA accepts basic training certificates from any White List country, but some officer-level courses only from EU states and countries it names (section 10.3).

Case Study: Social Responsibility Is a Safety Module

MAIB Safety Digest 2/2007, Case 22, which the MAIB said "could apply to any seafarer". A fisherman spent a week at sea in foul weather with little sleep, a long day discharging and repairing in port, then a night in the pub. Returning on board, he missed his footing stepping from the quay to the gunwale, struck his head and fell between the boat and the quay. He was not missed for some time, and his body was recovered next morning. The MAIB recorded 13 similar deaths of fishermen returning from the pub over 10 years. It concluded that alcohol and fatigue can be a fatal combination, and pointed to the need for a safe means of access. This is exactly the material of the PSSR module: fatigue, alcohol, safe access, and looking out for shipmates.

Common Mistakes

• Letting PST, FPFF, Survival Craft or Advanced Fire Fighting lapse while ashore. You cannot sail, and Port State Control can detain you.
• Assuming a CoC from one flag is enough on any ship. You also need the flag's endorsement.
• Ignoring colour vision until after paying for a cadetship or course.
• Treating the hours of rest record as a formality. Falsified records hide fatigue, and fatigue is a factor in many groundings and collisions.

Summary

• STCW sets the minimum standards for training, certification and watchkeeping. National regulations add to them, and the MLC sets living and working conditions.
• Documents come in three kinds: CoCs for ranks, CoPs for courses, and endorsements for recognition by other flags.
• Basic training (PST, FPFF, EFA, PSSR) and Security Awareness are needed before your first voyage. PST and FPFF must be updated every 5 years.
• Officers also need Survival Craft, Advanced Fire Fighting (both updated every 5 years), Medical First Aid, GMDSS, and Medical Care at management level.
• A medical is valid for 2 years at most (1 year under 18), and colour vision for 6 years.
• Rest: at least 10 hours in 24 and 77 in 7 days, in at most two periods, one of at least 6 hours, with no more than 14 hours between them.

Check Your Understanding

1. Name the five certificates every new seafarer needs, besides the medical, before the first voyage.

Answer: Personal Survival Techniques, Fire Prevention and Fire Fighting, Elementary First Aid, Personal Safety and Social Responsibilities, and Security Awareness.

1. Which basic and officer courses must be updated every 5 years?

Answer: Personal Survival Techniques, Fire Prevention and Fire Fighting, Proficiency in Survival Craft and Rescue Boats, and Advanced Fire Fighting. Medical Care must also have been completed or updated within 5 years for those who need it.

1. What is the difference between a CoC and a CoP?

Answer: A CoC certifies competence to serve in a rank, such as OOW or Master. A CoP certifies completion of a specific STCW course, such as Advanced Fire Fighting.

1. What are the minimum hours of rest?

Answer: 10 hours in any 24 and 77 hours in any 7 days, in no more than two periods, one at least 6 hours long, with no more than 14 hours between rest periods.

1. A rating rests 4 hours, 3 hours and 3 hours in a day. Is that compliant?

Answer: No. The total is 10 hours, but it is split into three periods and none is 6 hours long.

1. How long is a seafarer medical valid for a 17-year-old cadet?

Answer: At most 1 year. For seafarers aged 18 and over it is at most 2 years, and colour vision certification at most 6 years.

1. What do you need to serve as an officer on a ship of another flag?

Answer: An endorsement from that flag state recognising your CoC, such as a Certificate of Equivalent Competency. This is normally available only for CoCs from IMO White List states.

1. What did the MAIB conclude from the series of deaths in Case 22, and which STCW module covers it?

Answer: That alcohol and fatigue are a fatal combination, and that safe means of access matter. These are Personal Safety and Social Responsibilities topics.

Sources

• MCA, MSN 1856 (M) Amendment 1: UK requirements for Master and deck officers (merchant)
• MCA, MSN 1858 (M) Amendment 1: yacht deck officer certificates of competency
• ILO, Maritime Labour Convention 2006 (Regs 1.1, 1.2, 2.3 and Standards A1.2, A2.3)
• MAIB Safety Digest 2/2007, Case 22 (an older case; the lessons remain current)