X WMA Class 4 Course For Engine Ratings

Course Title:

STCW III/I Engineer Officer of the Watch (EOOW) – Examination Route (earlier called as Class 4 course)

Course Starting Dates:

22 August 2022 Distance Learning – Campus phase 19 September 2022
28 November 2022 Distance Learning – Campus phase 09 January 2023
27 March 2023 Distance Learning – Campus phase 24 April 2023

There are 3 batches every year. Seats get filled up about 6 months in advance usually.

• University Application Form
• Passport – 1st and last page
• CC – 1st page and sea service stamped pages
• STCW basic courses – PST + PSSR + FPFF + EFA
• Chief Engineer testimonials of atleast 24 months (CE Testimonial Sample Format)
• Watch Rating Certificate (STCW III/4)
• Valid Medical Fitness Certificate in ANNEXURE IV format from any DG Shipping approved Doctor
• Payment of 200 GBP in favour of the University (E-payment procedure)

Applying for a Notice of Eligibility (NoE):

Students need to apply for a NoE with the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA), UK to be eligible to appear for the SQA wriitten and MCA oral examinations in the UK. You can apply for your NoE from India prior to going to the UK or you can apply for your NoE during your stay in the UK. It is not necessary to be in possession of NoE for booking a course. However, if you have doubts that some of your sea-time may not be counted by the MCA for whatsoever reasons (for e.g. missing documents, no stamps on the CDC, CE testimonials not in the proper format, less propelling days, time in dry-dock, etc.), it would be advisable to do your NoE before booking your course. The processing time for the NoE is normally 28 working days normally. If your documents are found to be forged, all your documents will be seized and you will not be allowed to sit for exams in the UK again.

The following is the procedure to apply for a NOE:

The NoE is not required for booking a seat in the college or for applying for a UK visa application. It will be required before you can sit for the MCA orals or the SQA written examination.

MCA, UK rules explaining eligibility conditions for Engine CoCs can be read in MSN 1857

STCW short course details:

The following MCA, UK approved short courses need to be completed before you can be issued with a UK EOOW CoC.
These courses are however not required for applying for a Notice of Eligibility (NoE) with the MCA, UK.

If for some reason, the student is not able to complete these courses prior to going to the UK, he can come back from the UK, finish the short courses, send the certificates to MCA, UK and the MCA will post the CoC to the student in about 3 weeks time.

Course Examination and Duration

You will need to clear the following exams successfully to be eligible for a EOOW CoC:

If you did not clear your written exams in the 2 – 3 attempts that you get in the UK, then your visa would have expired and you will need to make an additional trip to the UK to resit those pending exams. There is no restriction in the number of attempts a student can give to clear his exams. Normally 90% of the students are able to clear their exams within the 2 – 3 attempts and hence do not have to make the additional trip to the UK. Visas cannot be extended in the UK. If you do need to make a 2nd trip to the UK, you will incur an additional expense of about £800 (approx. 85,000 INR if 1 £= 105 INR) for your flight ticket, visa fees, resit examination and approximate 3 days of hotel stay in the UK.

Total expenses in the UK

Your expected total expenses in the UK inclusive of Tuition Fees, Exam Fees, NoE, STCW Short Courses (AFF + MFA + PSCRB + HELM + High Voltage), Food & Accommodation, Flight Tickets (to and fro), Visa Charges, etc, will work out to about £ 11,500 (approx. 12 Lakhs INR if 1 £ = 105 INR). If the value of £ goes up, your total expenses will go up as well and vice versa.

Out of this total expense of £ 11,500 (approx. 12 Lakhs INR if 1 £ = 105 INR), you will spend £ 900 on doing all the MCA approved short courses in India whereas £10,600 will be spent on your tuition fees, written and oral exams, flight tickets, visas, food and accommodation, etc., whilst doing the course in the UK. For non-Indian students, doing the MCA, UK approved short courses in India, you will need to add cost of your visa, flight tickets and accommodation to India as well which may add an extra £ 1,000 to your costs.

The approximate living cost is as given below but it will vary from person to person:

Accommodation, Food and Flight Tickets:

Accommodation: College does not guarantee hostel accommodation for overseas students. Students stay in rented apartments as it works out to be much cheaper. A typical house would have 4 – 5 rooms which would be rented out to the students. Each room would be fully furnished i.e. the room would have a bed, mattress, wardrobe, study table, carpet, lights and heating system. The student would pay the room rent to the landlord every month. The kitchen and the washroom would be shared amenities. The kitchen would typically have a dining table, microwave, refrigerator and cooking system in place. On arrival in the city of Southampton, you can directly move into the rented accommodation or alternatively stay in a Bed & Breakfast (budget hotel) for one night, check out a few houses the next day and accordingly move into one of the many available rented accommodations. A single room would house one student, a couple or 2 students at the maximum. On signing the contract with the landlord, you will have to pay one month’s of rent as security deposit as well as the rent in advance for that month. Please ensure that you keep a copy of your contract safely with you and insist that the rent will be paid by cheques only. Ask the landlord for a copy of rent receipt as well for your safety. Most contract’s come with a one month notice period which means that you will have to give one month’s notice before vacating or else you may lose your deposit money. At the time of returning the deposit money, the landlord may make deductions for any damage that the tenant may have done to the property.

A list of landlords are given below whom you can start contacting 1 – 2 weeks prior to your departure for the UK:

Most of the landlords are Gujaratis or Punjabis. The accommodations are located about 5 – 20 minutes walking distance from Southampton Solent University.

Alternatively, you can stay for 1 day in a Bed and Breakfast Hotel (budget hotel) on arrival in Southampton and check out houses the next day. Visit the link below for a list of such budget hotels in the vicinity of the University: Bed and Breakfast Budget Hotels

Food: All food items that are available in India are also available in Southampton, UK for e.g. rice, wheat, dal, vegetables, chicken, mutton, fish, fruits, etc. Students staying in a house buy their groceries together and divide the cost amongst themselves. Eating outside at restaurants, take-away, etc. are very expensive because of the high cost of labour in UK and hence invariably all students cook their food together at home only. Grocery shops are located at 5 – 10 minutes walking distance from the accommodation areas.

Flight tickets: You do not need to have your flight tickets whilst applying for a UK student visitor visa. Students usually book their flight tickets after having received their UK student visa. A to & fro fare will cost about 50,000 INR. Prices vary depending upon season and how far is your travel date from the date of booking. You arrival airport in the UK will be London Heathrow. If required, we will introduce you to a travel agent who will assist you with the flight ticketing process. It is strongly advised that you buy a to & fro (i.e return ticket) as some students with a 1 way ticket have faced problems with airlines in boarding the aircraft.

You will be introduced to the other students going along with you so that you can decide whom do you want to share your accommodation with in Southampton and accordingly book your flight tickets together. There are about 200 students going to Warsash Maritime Academy, Southampton, UK from India every year for the various Deck and Engine post-sea CoC courses over the 3 batches starting in January, April and September respectively.

Educational Loans:

Banks in India are usually reluctant to sanction loans for CoC courses and the typical reasons for refusing loans are as given below:

We have uploaded loan sanction letters of various banks on the first page of our website www.springdaleindia.com. It may be of help in convincing your bank manager to sanction your loan once he sees that his bank (but a different branch) have given loan to another student for the same course in the same college.

You may also try to take Loan Against Jewellery. This is the fastest means of getting a loan as the money is disbursed on the same day. Most banks for e.g. HDFC, ICICI, etc. give loans against jewellery.

How to reach Southampton:

There are direct / indirect flights from Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Calcutta, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Cohin to London. On arrival at the London Heathrow airport, you will have to go through immigration check up which may take about 1 – 2 hours depending upon the rush at the airport. Joining the London Heathrow Airport is the National Express Coach station / bus stop. You can buy the bus ticket at the bus stop and the fare is approximately £25 for a one way trip. The journey duration from London Heathrow airport to Southampton is about 90 minutes and there is a bus leaving every 45 minutes on an average. If you happen to arrive at London airport after 7 PM, it is advisable to stay back at the airport in the night and take the early morning bus to Southampton. You will find many tourists / students staying overnight at the London airport and taking the morning coach to their respective destination. You will not be charged for staying during the night at the airport but you will have to make do with a chair only or maybe sit on the floor with your luggage. On reaching Southampton bus stop, you will take a taxi to your landlord’s house or to a hotel. As the bus stop is located in the heart of the city of Southampton, your taxi fare will not be more than £5.

Carrying money to the UK:

Students can carry money to the UK as currency notes, travelers cheques, demand drafts and international student forex cards. We advise the students to carry about £ 500 as cash (£ 1,000 if they are carrying their family) and £ 1,000 in their international student forex cards. International student’s forex cards are provided free or cost to the students and we will provide you with one prior to your going to the UK. The advantages of students forex card are given below:

Visa Procedures

The visa rules keep on changing very frequently. Hence, the rules that are valid today may not be the same in the future. We will assist you with the visa procedure. Please take note the following:

Working in the UK – Part time / Full time:

If your course duration is less than 6 months, then you are not allowed to work part-time in the UK. As the EOOW course duration is only for 5 months, hence the visa stamp on your passport will mention that work is not allowed. Please DO NOT WORK in the UK on this visa because you will be deported back to India if caught working on this visa. Also, you will be banned from applying for a UK visa for the next 10 years. You could also face problems if you join a ship which were to touch a UK port in the future.

Contact Us:

Kunal Anshuman,
Springdale India
Tel: +91 – 98927 25375
Email: kunal.anshuman@springdaleindia.com
Visit: www.springdaleindia.com
Address: Office No. 529, Mastermind 4, Royal Palms, Aarey Colony, Goregaon E, Mumbai – 400 065