Safety training that must be complete before joining and familiarization filled in on board (MLC Regulation 1.3)

Say the crew list for tomorrow has arrived. One person’s basic safety training certificate has not been issued yet. The other holds the certificate but has never sailed on this ship. Which of the two can be taken on board, and what can be assigned to them once they are.

MLC, 2006 Regulation 1.3 and STCW Code A-VI/1 answer the question. The two texts hang their thresholds on different moments. One hangs on working on a ship at all, the other on the moment shipboard duties are assigned. This article looks at that difference.

Regulation 1.3 hangs the threshold on working on a ship at all

1. Seafarers shall not work on a ship unless they are trained or certified as competent or otherwise qualified to perform their duties.

2. Seafarers shall not be permitted to work on a ship unless they have successfully completed training for personal safety on board ship.

Both paragraphs are written as prohibitions. Neither says a seafarer may be taken on once qualified. Both say a seafarer may not work on a ship without it. Paragraph 1 asks about the ability to perform the duties, paragraph 2 asks about training for personal safety on board ship. The two conditions do not stand in for each other. An engineer officer holding a certificate of competency still meets paragraph 2.

Look at the verb in paragraph 2. It is shall not be permitted to work. The party doing the permitting is hidden in the sentence. This is not something the seafarer arranges alone. It is something the party putting the seafarer to work has to check. And what the threshold attaches to is not a particular duty but working on that ship at all.

Regulation 1.3 hands the content of the training to IMO instruments

3. Training and certification in accordance with the mandatory instruments adopted by the International Maritime Organization shall be considered as meeting the requirements of paragraphs 1 and 2 of this Regulation.

Regulation 1.3 does not itself set out which subjects have to be completed. It says only that training and certification under the mandatory instruments adopted by IMO count as meeting paragraphs 1 and 2. So the actual content of the threshold is read in the STCW Code.

The STCW Code uses a different word for the moment. Not joining, but before being assigned to shipboard duties. Section A-VI/1 hangs two things on that moment, and the places where the two can be filled in are opposites.

Basic training demands evidence, so it cannot be produced on board

2 Seafarers employed or engaged in any capacity on board ship on the business of that ship as part of the ship’s complement with designated safety or pollution-prevention duties in the operation of the ship shall, before being assigned to any shipboard duties:

The population is narrow. It is seafarers who are part of the ship’s complement and hold designated safety or pollution-prevention duties in the operation of the ship. What they have to receive is approved basic training. The provision does not stop there and adds one more line.

.2 be required to provide evidence of having achieved the required standard of competence to undertake the tasks, duties and responsibilities listed in column 1 of tables A-VI/1-1, A-VI/1-2, A-VI/1-3 and A-VI/1-4 through:

The form of the evidence is set out as well. Demonstration of competence in accordance with the methods and criteria in columns 3 and 4 of the tables, and examination or continuous assessment as part of an approved training programme.

The moment written into the provision is the assignment of duties, not the act of joining. But the evidence only comes into being through demonstration and examination inside an approved programme. It is not an object that can be produced on the day someone steps aboard. So this threshold has to be finished ashore before joining. Regulation 1.3 paragraph 2 puts the same training in the way of working on the ship at all.

Familiarization names the particular ship, so it cannot be finished ashore

1 Before being assigned to shipboard duties, all persons employed or engaged on a seagoing ship, other than passengers, shall receive approved familiarization training in personal survival techniques or receive sufficient information and instruction, taking account of the guidance given in part B, to be able to:

The population is all persons. It does not ask whether the person is a seafarer or holds designated safety duties, and only passengers fall outside. The form is a choice as well. Approved familiarization training, or sufficient information and instruction. The demonstration and examination attached in the previous section are absent here.

Seven abilities are listed, and the last of them shows what kind of provision this is.

.7 close and open the fire, weathertight and watertight doors fitted in the particular ship other than those for hull openings.

fitted in the particular ship. The doors on that ship. The item on identifying muster and embarkation stations and emergency escape routes, and the item on locating and donning lifejackets, are of the same kind. Until a ship is named there is nothing for them to point at. They cannot be finished in a classroom ashore, and familiarization done on the last ship does not stand in for them.

The two thresholds split on the evidence row

Item	Basic training (A-VI/1 paragraph 2)	Safety familiarization (A-VI/1 paragraph 1)
Who	Ship’s complement holding designated safety or pollution-prevention duties	Everyone on board except passengers
Form	Approved basic training or instruction	Approved familiarization training, or sufficient information and instruction
Evidence the provision demands	Demonstration of competence and examination or continuous assessment	The provision sets no form
Where it can be filled in	Ashore, where an approved programme exists	The ship the seafarer has joined

The sentences that set the moment read almost the same. The row that splits them is evidence. Basic training has to pass through an approved programme and an examination, so it leaves an object behind, a certificate. Familiarization has no form of evidence set by the provision, so what is left behind depends on what the ship records.

That is also where the crew list splits. Anyone without the certificate is stopped before joining. Anyone who holds it but has never sailed on this ship has to be familiarized before duties are assigned, and unless the ship records that, there is nothing to show afterwards.

Worth confirming

The passages above come from printed page 20 of the consolidated MLC, 2006 (including the 2022 amendments) and from printed pages 180 and 181 of STCW/CONF.2/34 Code A-VI/1. Regulation 1.3 and A-VI/1 set the thresholds, but the approval of training providers, the format of the certificate and the record familiarization has to leave behind are filled in by flag State law and the Administration. Paragraph 5 of A-VI/1 lets the Administration exempt some ships from part of the requirements of that section, so whether the ship falls inside that range has to be read as well. What form of familiarization record the flag State has set, and where the company’s safety management system says that record goes, are where the actual judgement starts.