Five-year proof of maintained competence for survival craft and advanced fire fighting (STCW Code A-VI/2 and A-VI/3)

The chief officer brings a bundle of certificates. Survival craft and rescue boats, fast rescue boats, advanced fire fighting, and medical first aid. The question is what has to be taken again before the next contract.

The four cannot be given the same answer. Part A of the STCW Code writes the maintenance requirement separately for each qualification, and only some of them carry a five-year cycle. And what is required every five years is not the same proof that was required to obtain the certificate. This article follows those two divides.

The survival craft qualification carries a paragraph requiring proof every five years

5 Seafarers qualified in accordance with paragraph 4 in survival craft and rescue boats other than fast rescue boats shall be required, every five years, to provide evidence of having maintained the required standards of competence to undertake the tasks, duties and responsibilities listed in column 1 of table A-VI/2-1.

There are three places to read. The cycle is five years, what has to be produced is evidence of having maintained, and the subject is the tasks in column 1 of table A-VI/2-1. It points at the same table as the initial issue, but the verb differs. Initially it is achieved; for maintenance it is maintained.

Fast rescue boats are a separate qualification inside the same section. A different table and a different paragraph.

11 Seafarers qualified in accordance with paragraph 10 in fast rescue boats shall be required, every five years, to provide evidence of having maintained the required standards of competence to undertake the tasks, duties and responsibilities listed in column 1 of table A-VI/2-2.

Holding the survival craft certificate does not fill the fast rescue boat cycle along with it, because each paragraph points at its own table.

The initial issue attaches an examination, while the renewal paragraph names no method

The initial requirement runs in two strands. Paragraph 4 writes it that way. One is demonstrating the tasks in column 1 in accordance with the methods and criteria in columns 3 and 4. The other is this.

.2 examination or continuous assessment as part of an approved training programme covering the material set out in column 2 of table A-VI/2-1.

Paragraph 5 has no such strand. It asks for evidence of maintenance and names no method. The paragraph that follows opens one door onto method.

6 Parties may accept onboard training and experience for maintaining the required standard of competence of table A-VI/2-1 in the following areas:

The subject is Parties. Not the company, not the master, but the States party to the Convention. And the verb is may. Whether onboard training and experience count is for the Party to settle. Where the flag State does not accept them, onboard records do not become proof of maintenance however many are kept.

Only part of the initial table can be filled by onboard experience

Column 1 of table A-VI/2-1 lists five competences. The list paragraph 6 opens has four. The one missing is operating a survival craft engine. Inside the remaining four there are gaps as well.

• righting an inverted liferaft while wearing a lifejacket is in the table and not in the list in paragraph 6
• the third competence in the table covers pyrotechnics, while the matching strand in paragraph 6 is portable radio equipment alone

.2.2 use individual items of equipment of survival crafts, except for pyrotechnics; and

except for pyrotechnics compresses the whole structure. What cannot be reproduced on the ship is not accepted as onboard experience. A pyrotechnic is consumed when fired, and firing one for practice sends a distress signal. What is left over is filled by the training institution.

Paragraph 12, on the fast rescue boat side, has the same shape. Righting a capsized fast rescue boat and swimming in special equipment are in table A-VI/2-2 and not in paragraph 12.

Advanced fire fighting is on the five-year cycle too, but only one cell opens on board

5 Seafarers qualified in accordance with paragraph 4 in advanced fire fighting shall be required, every five years, to provide evidence of having maintained the required standards of competence to undertake the tasks, duties and responsibilities listed in column 1 of table A-VI/3.

The sentence has the same shape as paragraph 5 of A-VI/2: five years, evidence of maintenance, column 1 of the table. Column 1 of table A-VI/3, however, lists four competences.

• control fire-fighting operations aboard ships
• organize and train fire parties
• inspect and service fire-detection and fire-extinguishing systems and equipment
• investigate and compile reports on incidents involving fire

What paragraph 6 opens to onboard training and experience is the first of these alone. And not even all of the first. Column 2 of the table carries the use of water for fire-extinguishing and its effect on ship stability, with the precautions and corrective procedures, and fire fighting involving dangerous goods. Neither appears in the list in paragraph 6.

The threshold for the initial issue also differs from A-VI/2.

1 Seafarers designated to control fire-fighting operations shall have successfully completed advanced training in techniques for fighting fire, with particular emphasis on organization, tactics and command, and shall be required to demonstrate competence to undertake the tasks, duties and responsibilities listed in column 1 of table A-VI/3.

shall have successfully completed advanced training comes first. Having completed the approved advanced training is itself the requirement. It is not written as two strands of demonstration and examination the way paragraph 4 of A-VI/2 is.

The two medical qualifications carry no five-year paragraph at all

A-VI/4 splits the qualification in two: the seafarer designated to provide medical first aid on board, and the seafarer designated to take charge of medical care on board. The first uses table A-VI/4-1 and the second table A-VI/4-2.

This section has no paragraph requiring evidence of maintenance every five years, and none letting Parties accept onboard training and experience. The two paragraphs that sit side by side in A-VI/2 and A-VI/3 do not appear in A-VI/4.

What differs instead is the method of proof. Medical care is assessed by practical instruction and demonstration, and one more line is attached to it.

Where practicable, approved practical experience at a hospital or similar establishment

Approved practical experience at a hospital or a similar establishment, where practicable, is not a kind of evidence a ship can produce.

Qualification	Five-year proof	Onboard training and experience
Survival craft and rescue boats other than fast	A-VI/2 paragraph 5	four strands (paragraph 6)
Fast rescue boats	A-VI/2 paragraph 11	one strand (paragraph 12)
Advanced fire fighting	A-VI/3 paragraph 5	one strand (paragraph 6)
Medical first aid	no such paragraph	no such paragraph
Medical care	no such paragraph	no such paragraph

Worth confirming

The passages above come from sections A-VI/2, A-VI/3 and A-VI/4 of the STCW Code (STCW/CONF.2/34).

What part A settles is whether evidence of maintenance is required, and the range of items that onboard experience may cover. Whether a Party actually accepts them within that range is for the Party, and the form and the place of filing are for the flag State. That A-VI/4 carries no five-year paragraph is a fact about part A of the Code. A flag State putting a validity period on medical certificates under its own law sits on a different layer. Whether the flag State accepts onboard experience, and what records it asks for if it does, is where the actual judgement starts.