I finished my degree on July 2nd 2018, but even after the school is finished, there’s a lot of work that has to be done.

On today’s article I’m going to explain to you what we have to do once it is over.

Go to the school’s administrative office:

As soon as we finish the degree, we must go to the school’s administrative office so they can give us 3 documents:

  • Degree diploma – 80€
  • Course certificates necessary for the emission of training certificates. – 40€
  • Deck cadet book- 30€

The deck cadet book is where the officers that accompany us during our trainee year, write the activities that we do. This book has to be taken to DGRM so it can be signed by them.

DGRM is the portuguese maritime administration.

 

Besides these documents we can ask for other certificates that have an extra cost of 30€ each.

  • Leadership and work as a team at operational level.
  • BRM
  • ECDIS
  • HAZMAT

Medical certificate:

To go to the port authority, we need to take some documents and one of them is the medical certificate, that proves we are healthy enough to work on board.

You can read more about this matter  in my medical certificate article.

Port authority:

The port authority is where we ask for the seaman’s book, which is the equivalent to a driving licence but on board.

The seamen’s book has a cost of 20€ and it takes between two and three weeks to be made.

If we have urgency, we can pay 37.5€ for it and have it in 3 business days.

To ask for the seaman’s book we need to take with us:

  • Medical certificate
  • Vaccine card
  • 2 passport sized photos
  • Degree diploma and course certificates

Going to DGRM:

At DGRM we ask for the remaining certificates

There are 6 mandatory certificates for anyone who gets the degree:

  • Certificate of proficiency for the control of fire fighting operations
  • Certificate of proficiency to provide medical first aid on board ships
  • Certificate of basic safety
  • GMDSS general operator’s certificate
  • Certificate of proficiency in designated security duties
  • Certificate of ARPA simulator

From those 6, 2 of them need to be paid and cost 36€ each.

Besides the mandatory ones, there are 4 more you can request:

  • Certificate of crowd management
  • Certificate of safety for personnel providing direct service to passengers
  • Certificate in basic training for oil and chemical tanker cargo operations
  • Certificate in basic training for gas tanker.