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It’s that time of year again…

The Slater Scholarship application deadline is fast approaching with no submissions for this intake being accepted beyond 5pm on 23^rd April.

These ‘gold standard’ scholarships – administered by the Marine Society on behalf of Nautilus International – offer Merchant Navy seafarers up to £18,500 towards gaining their first officer of the watch qualification or STCW Certification.

Slater Scholarships are available for two years from the date of award and must be started within a year of being awarded. The Fund is available for any experienced seafarer aged 21 and over and permanently residing in the UK.

In order to be eligible, you must have completed ALL the seagoing service required for the certificate you are aiming for.

Successful applicants will be notified by 7th June 2021.

Applications received after this closing date will be given priority for the next intake as below.

Application submission deadline is 12th November 2021.

Successful applicants notified by 10th January 2022.

In these unprecedented times why not take the opportunity to upgrade your certification to the next level and broaden your employment prospects.

We encourage you to visit our Slater Scholarship page for full details on how to apply.

If you are ready to apply now, you can download this application form and return it to us.

A new partnership for the provision of maritime apprenticeships has been unveiled by the Marine Society and SeaRegs Training Ltd.

Following the start of National Apprentice Week (8 February 2021), the two organisations have announced high quality training partnership for Boatmaster, Workboat Crewmember and Port Operative apprenticeships across the country, including on the River Thames.

The partnership has strong employer and industry connections around the country and is looking to expand numbers and geographical coverage, as demand returns, post COVID-19

Established over 250 years ago, the Marine Society is Britain’s oldest maritime charity, serving seafarers through training and recently became an approved apprenticeship training provider. The charity also operates the Sea Cadet units nationally, with over 400 stations and 15,000 young people involved annually.

SeaRegs Training is an Independent training provider, delivering MCA, STCW, SQA and RYA professional courses and has a solid background in providing maritime apprenticeships. They have a proven track record of providing well-regarded training courses for the code and class vessel sector and training in ports.

Training is currently based out of fully-equipped facilities at Royal Docks Sea Cadet Boat Station in London and SeaRegs’ Training base and vessels at Turnchapel Wharf in Plymouth, with regular use of employer facilities, such as the Port of London Authority in Gravesend.

Darrell Bate, Director of Maritime Training and Development at the Marine Society, says; “We are delighted to have secured this partnership to grow maritime careers and training at grassroots and supply high quality apprentices to this vital sector.”

Simon Jinks, Managing Director at Sea Regs adds; ‘We are thrilled to partner with a long-standing maritime organisation, who share our passion for high standards of training and helping budding and existing seafarers in their careers afloat or in the maritime industry’.

The Marine Society and SeaRegs are proud to support National Apprenticeship Week in association with Maritime UK and the Maritime Skills Alliance.

Enquiries to learning@ms-sc.org

www.searegs.co.uk

Marine Society has successfully bid to the Maritime Skills Commission for a project to develop a new accredited qualification that introduces school and college leavers to the wide range of shore based roles in maritime.

Project lead, Darrell Bate and curriculum consultant James Bullar plan to revise the existing Open Awards Level 3 Certificate in Maritime Studies to reach a new audience of school leavers for young adults and attract them into the maritime sector.  A steering group comprising shipping firm Casper Shipping, the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers and Stockton Riverside College has been formed to guide the process through to completion in April 2021. 

The qualification will include brand new modules covering; maritime trade, port operations and commercial shipping. These will sit alongside existing modules such as navigation, boat handling, marine stability and running a maritime business, allowing students to follow a ‘wet’ or ‘dry’ side maritime pathway. First teaching is expected in September 2021 at Stockton Riverside before wider rollout to the post 16 sector.

The Maritime Commission is a representative body of maritime professionals and leaders tasked by the Department for Transport to implement the key themes of the Government’s Maritime 2050 strategy. Details of their work and this project can be found HERE

For many decades Marine Society has proudly managed The Slater Scholarship programme on behalf of Nautilus International. 

These ‘gold standard’ scholarships offer Merchant Navy seafarers up to £18,500 towards gaining their officer of the watch qualification and as a result, more than a thousand seafarers have successfully progressed their seagoing career in the last ten years alone.

During 2020, a downturn in income meant the fund was only able to support 20 scholars, the first time a cap has been applied. However, we are pleased to announce that for 2021 this cap has been lifted to a maximum of 60 applications over two intakes annually with the hope this will be raised higher in future years.

We expect demand will exceed supply, therefore a clear set of criteria has been agreed against which applications will be judged. Those who are unsuccessful at the first attempt will be considered priority in the next intake.

Slater Scholarships are available from the date of award and will be accessible for a two-year period, this must be exercised within a year of being awarded. The Fund is obtainable for any experienced seafarer aged 21 and over and permanently residing in the UK.

We are proud and honoured to play our part in such an impactful Scholarship programme that is helping UK seafarers take vital steps in employment.

Here is the all-important information you need for 2021/22 submissions:

• We are accepting applications from 4th January 2021.
• Application submission deadline is 23rd April 2021.
• Successful applicants will be notified by 7th June 2021.

Applications received after this closing date will not be considered until the next intake as below.

• Application submission deadline is 12th November 2021.
• Successful applicants notified by 10th January 2022.

In these uncertain times it has never been more important to gain professional qualifications that secure your future career.

 We encourage you to visit our dedicated site at https://www.marine-society.org/slater-scholarship for full details on how to apply.

Our Learn@Sea courses have been received positively from all walks of seafarer life, and now we are proud to launch two accredited qualifications by Open Awards: Level 3 Award in Maritime Mathematics and Level 3 Award in Vessel Stability.

These A-level equivalent qualifications have been created to support seafarers’ development in order to further their maritime career.

The units contain learning outcomes and assessment criteria that are suitable for level 3 learning within the sector and offers the opportunity to partake in online learning. This enables more flexibility and seafarer reach with each qualification.

Now let’s breakdown both awards and the accredited courses associated with them:

L3 Award in Maritime Mathematics

Firstly, NQF Level 3 Maritime Mathematics is a combination of our award-winning Maths@Sea and Maths@Sea Plus courses. Our e-learning Maths@Sea course caters for seafarers and nautical students, or anyone set to venture into the maritime sector. The course gives our users a skill set that consists of elementary algebra, trigonometry and geometry; an indispensable requirement at nautical college.

Maths@Sea Plus covers more advanced areas of Maths@Sea modules including spherical trigonometry and calculus – building on existing knowledge.

L3 Award in Vessel Stability

NQF Level 3 Vessel Stability is an award that allows you to accredit your studies through our Stability@Sea course. This course – like Maths@Sea and Maths@Sea Plus – is designed to prepare learners to undertake the formal assessment for its respective qualification. The course itself covers all aspects of the buoyancy and stability of vessels presented in bite-size topics. Content is user-friendly, combining technical diagrams, images and self-test exercises to check understanding.

By the end of the course learners will understand the key objectives and be able to describe the effect of a fluid at rest, describe stability terms and definitions, understand vessel stability and flotation and complete basic transverse stability calculations.

For further information contact our Head of Seafarer Learning and Welfare, Carla Rockson or to sign up to any of our Learn@Sea course please go to www.marine-society.org/learnatsea