2nd Engineer & Chief Engineer CoC – Class 2 & Class 1

Course Title:

STCW (III/2 – III/3) Senior Engineers, Management Level.

This is the course to be done for obtaining your 2/E or C/E CoC from the MCA, UK.

University location:

90 minutes drive from London Heathrow airport. Solent University is in the heart of the city of Southampton.

Course start dates:

From 1 April 2024, we will be offering distance learning (NOT live online classes) for all the x6 Academic Subjects. So, these subject’s study materials can be taken during any of the 12 months in a year.

EK General & EK Motor course will be offered via live online classes of 6 weeks duration from September 2024. As of now, these are being offered as physical classes in the UK of 10 weeks duration.  

Distance Learning Program (DLP): 

You will be given downloadable study material through weblinks. Assignments must be completed and submitted to the University. Thereafter, subject to having scored a minimum score in the assignments, you will be issued with a course completion certificate for those subjects by the University. This will enable you to then appear for the written exams for those subjects in the UK. On average it will take a student about 1 month to complete the study module for each subject and submit the assignments if you can devote 4 hours of study time per day.

Eligibility Requirements:

Before undertaking Engineering Knowledge (EK’s) or MCA Oral examinations, candidates must have completed 12 months of seagoing service holding an EOOW III/1 Certificate of Competency on vessels of at least 750 KW engine power. This time must include at least 9 months in full charge of the watch or with designated UMS duties.

You need to have sea service stamps on the CDC and C/E testimonials as proof of sea time. A company sea time letter is not a requirement and cannot be used instead of a C/E testimonial.

If you have more than 36 months of sea time as an Engineer Watchkeeping Officer, you can give your Class I MCA orals after obtaining your 2/E CoC without the need for any additional sea time to be done after 2/E CoC.

Professional and Academic Subjects:

There are x8 subjects written examination which you need to pass, x1 MCA oral exam and certain MCA-approved STCW advanced courses and ancillary courses also need to be completed before you can apply for your STCW III/2 – 2nd Engineer CoC. The MCA oral exam can be given before or after your written exams. The best time to sit for the MCA oral exams is 2 weeks after the EK General and EK Motor written exams as what you study for the EK General and EK Motor written exams is what is generally asked in the MCA oral exam. The MCA orals past questions are as a PDF file at the end of this page.

▪ Professional Subjects:

√ EK General

√ EK Motor

▪ Academic Subjects:

√ Naval Architecture (NA)

√ Electrotechnology (ET)

√ Heat

√ Mechanics

√ Mathematics

√ Engineering Systems & Drawing

Students holding a BE Mechanical degree from outside the UK are “likely” to be exempted from the course (not exams) for Heat, Mechanics, Mathematics and Drawing.

Students holding a BE Marine degree from outside the UK are likely to be exempted from the course (not exams) for Heat, Mechanics, Mathematics, Drawing, NA and ET.

Note that the exemption is only from the course and NOT the written exams for students holding a non-UK degree. You must clear all the x8 written exams irrespective of your overseas academic qualification unless you hold an HND or bachelor’s degree in engineering from the UK. 

Students holding a bachelor’s degree in mechanical or marine engineering must apply for academic course exemptions using the link below:

https://exemption.iami.org.uk/apply 

To secure course exemptions from the academic subjects, the following are necessary:

• NARIC Statement of Comparability (SoC). You need to apply for this on the NARIC website www.naric.org.uk. It will take one month to obtain this, and the cost is around £70. The procedure for NARIC exemptions is explained at the end of this page as a PDF file attachment. We will assist you with the procedure to apply for NARIC comparability and it will take you about 30 minutes to complete this procedure online. As this procedure is online, you can do it from onboard a ship also.
• Syllabus from your college where you did your Engineering Degree for the academic subjects.  There must be a 70% syllabus match between what you were taught during your engineering degree and the UK syllabus. This will be checked during the exemption process by IAMI. You can get the syllabus by writing to your University HoD. 
• You should have scored over 50% marks during your engineering studies in the subjects from which you are seeking course exemptions.
• When you register on the IAMI link provided above for seeking exemptions, you should have your NARIC Statement of Comparability (SoC), your BE Mechanical / Marine passing certificate, all semester mark sheets/transcript, and the course syllabus from your engineering college. The exemption procedure will take around 4 weeks once you have submitted all documents and made the payment on the exemption link mentioned above. The cost of applying for exemptions for all 6 academic subjects will be close to £750. A sample IAMI exemption letter copy is attached at the end of this page for your reference.

MCA, UK-approved STCW advanced courses and ancillary courses:

The MCA, UK-approved STCW courses and their fees are given below. These can be done in India itself from BP Marine, Mumbai or HIMT, Chennai:

• AFF – INR 39,900
• MFA – INR 39,900
• PSCRB – INR 39,00
• HELM (M) – INR 39,900
• High Voltage (M) – INR 44,900
• Tanker, GAS – INR 49,900
• Tanker, OIL – INR 39,900
• Tanker, CHEMICAL – INR 39,900
• Tanker Fire Fighting – INR 14,900

Tanker courses will not be required for seafarers not working on tankers.

Above MCA STCW advanced courses will apply for seafarers who do not hold a UK Class 4 EOOW STCW III/1 CoC.

Those who already hold a UK CoC will likely be exempted from the MCA, and STCW advanced courses as per MIN643. Kindly refer to the MIN643 PDF file at the end of this page. They would however be required to do the HELM (M), High Voltage (M) and Tanker Courses if required.

We do assist with the MCA STCW advanced and ancillary courses seat booking at discounted rates for our students.

The MCA STCW advanced and ancillary courses are not required for appearing for the written and oral exams. These are required to be submitted to the MCA at the time of applying for your UK CoC.

Tuition Fees: 

The distance learning modules for the x6 academic subjects will begin on 1 April 2024. 

The fees have not been released yet but we expect them to be as below:

• Heat £450
• Mechanics £450
• NA £450
• ET £450
• Mathematics £450
• Drawing £450

The fees for EK General and EK Motor live online classes are expected to be around £2,500.

Written Exam Fees are as below:

• • EK General & EK Motor: £250.
• • Academic Subjects: £135 each.
• • MCA Orals: £220

Written and MCA Oral Examinations:

Written exams are held 4 times a year: 

• March 
• July 
• October
• December 

The x8 subject exams are conducted over 4 days with 2 exams in a day (morning/afternoon). Normally, students will sit for x4 exams and then return to their home country. Thereafter, they will go back after x3 months for the remaining exams or may opt to join the ship and give the remaining x4 exams later. 

Passing the written exams is not very easy in the UK. A student can be expected to make 3 or more trips to the UK to clear these written exams. Some students may never clear also. You need to put in a lot of effort to clear the written exams. 

MCA orals are not that difficult to pass at the 2/E level as per the feedback given by past students. One or two attempts should suffice to clear the MCA oral exams for most students.

Once you have got your MCA 2/E CoC, for C/E CoC you just need to give 1 MCA oral exam as there are no written exams any more at the C/E level. All written exams are completed at the 2/E level only (management level exams) as per the new rules applied in March 2017.

The written exams must be given mandatorily in the UK.

The MCA Orals are conducted online and can be done from your home country only e.g. India.

If you already hold a 2/E CoC from another country (e.g. India), you cannot directly take the C/E MCA oral exams and get the UK C/E CoC without having cleared the written exams in the UK (both professional and academic subjects).

Eng. Systems & Drawing is one paper where we have seen failure rates to be exceedingly high in the UK. We have seen many BE Mechanical / Marine students also struggling to clear Eng. Systems and Drawing paper even after 4 – 5 attempts. 

Total Expenses:

▶ BE Marine Student:

▪ Course Fees (EK G+M): £2,500

▪ IAMI Exemptions: £700

▪ MCA orals: £220

▪ Exams written for 8 subjects: £1,060

▪ Visa Fees: £100 (x3 trips to the UK).

▪ Flight ticket £700 (x3 trips to the UK).

▪ Accommodation £500 (x3 trips to the UK).

▪ Private tuition £800 (optional)

▪ MCA Short courses (AFF + MFA + PSCRB + HELM + High Voltage): £2,000

▪ Miscellaneous (any unaccounted expenses):  £500

Total = £11,680

If you need to do the tanker courses, then add an extra £600 per tanker DCE (dangerous cargo endorsement).

▶ BE Mechanical Student:

▪ Course Fees (EK G+M) + NA & ET: £3,400

▪ IAMI Exemptions: £500

▪ MCA orals: £220

▪ Exams written for 8 subjects: £1,060

▪ Visa Fees: £100 x 3 trips to the UK.

▪ Flight ticket £700 x3 trips to the UK.

▪ Accommodation £500 x3 trips

▪ Private tuition £800 (optional)

▪ MCA Short courses (AFF + MFA + PSCRB + HELM + High Voltage): £2,000

▪ Miscellaneous: £500 (any accounted expenses)

Total = £12,380

If you need to do the tanker courses, then add an extra £600 per tanker DCE (dangerous cargo endorsement).

▶ Non-BE student:

▪ Course Fees (All 8 subjects): £5,200

▪ MCA orals: £220

▪ Exams written for 8 subjects: £1,060

▪ Visa Fees: £100 (x3 trips to the UK).

▪ Flight ticket £700 (x3 trips to the UK).

▪ Accommodation £500 (x3 trips to the UK).

▪ Private tuition £800 (optional)

▪ MCA Short courses (AFF + MFA + PSCRB + HELM + High Voltage): £2,000

▪ Miscellaneous (any unaccounted expenses): £500

Total = £13,680

If you need to do the tanker courses, then add an extra £600 per tanker DCE (dangerous cargo endorsement).

Overseas students who plan to come to India to do the MCA, STCW advanced and ancillary courses need to budget an extra £1,000 towards flight travel and living expenses in India.

Course Booking:

Please WhatsApp or email the following documents to me for seat booking:  

■ Passport 1st page and address page 

■ CDC 1st page and sea service stamped pages after Class 4 CoC (STCW III/1 FG)

■ Class 4 CoC – All relevant pages and expiry date page 

■ University application form (Take a B&W printout of the first 2 pages of PDF, fill it with pen and email / WhatsApp to me).

A sample filled-up form (pages 5 and 6 of the PDF) is enclosed for reference at the end of this message to help you fill in the main application form.

Please make PDF copies of the above documents using the CAMSCANNER APP on your phone and send me 4 independent PDF files via email / WhatsApp.

Bank details of the University are given on Page 9 of the PDF file.

We will assist you with the money transfer procedure to the University.

IELTS English test:

There is no requirement for an IELTS English test as your visa duration is of 6 months.

Visa Procedure:

We will assist you with the visa procedure. The visa processing time is normally about 3 weeks. At times of crisis like a pandemic, war, etc., the visa processing time may extend up to 2 months or more as well.

Show money for UK visa:

You need to show £2,000 (approx. INR 2 Lakhs) savings in your bank when applying for your UK visa subject to already having the course fees for the exams you are going to sit in the UK. Your visit to the UK will be for 10 days only to sit for the written exams and then return to your home country. For every subsequent trip that you make to the UK for your written exams / re-sit exams, you will again need to show £2,000 for the UK visa. You also need to explain the source of this money that you will show in your bank account. Any large incoming remittance in your bank account (not consistent with historical financial records) must be explained with documentary evidence. Otherwise, it is a red flag in the eyes of the visa officer and can lead to a possible visa refusal. Even if your visa is refused, you can re-apply again by showing the proper financial documents.

Carrying Spouse and Children to the UK:

Your wife and children can accompany you to the UK on a VISITOR VISA (not dependent visa) for a maximum of 6 months period. Spouses and children are not allowed to work in the UK on a visitor visa. There is no IELTS test requirement for spouse and child. The visitor visa application fee is £100 per applicant. You will have to show an extra £2,000 per family member. For E.g., if a wife and one child are accompanying you to the UK, then you must show £4,000 extra funds for their visas. You can show this money in your bank account or your spouse’s account for their visas. There is no additional document required from the University for your spouse and child visitor visa application. Your spouse will require her passport and marriage certificate at the time of the visa application. The child will need to submit his passport and birth certificate at the time of visa application. We will assist you with the spouse and child visitor visa application procedure. NOTE: As you are going to the UK not to study but for only your written exams, the probability of getting a visa for a wife and child is low. If you were going for x6 months of study to the UK, then yes, the probability of your wife and child getting their visas is good, but you are going only for 10 days to sit for your exams and will then return to your home country.

Accommodation:

As your stay in the UK will be for 7 – 10 days, you will be staying in a budget hotel also called B&B (Bed & Breakfast) accommodation. Expect to spend about £50 per day on average on food and accommodation during your 10 days of stay in Southampton. Total expected food and living expenses for 10 days will be  £500. A list of budget hotels has been given as a PDF file at the end of this message.

Travelling to Southampton:

You will fly to London Heathrow Airport (LHR) and then take a coach/bus to Southampton. We will do your flight ticket bookings if you want us to do or you can do it yourself online on various travel portals. The bus journey time will be around 90 minutes. The coach/bus starts from LHR airport to Southampton, and you can book the ticket on:

 www.nationalexpress.com 

Educational Loan / Personal Loan:

We assist students with the educational loan / personal loan procedure. Although a loan is not guaranteed, about 70% of the students can get a loan. We have an ex-HDFC banker who assists our students with the loan procedure.

Private Tuitions:

Private optional online tuition is available for all x6 Academic Subjects through tutors in India. These online private tuitions are not offered by Solent University, UK but by private teachers in India on their own initiative. If you are interested in these private online tuition classes, please let me know and I will share the tutor contact details with you.

If you have any queries, please revert by phone, email, or WhatsApp.

Contact Us:

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

NOTE:

WE ARE AN AUTHORISED REPRESENTATIVE OF WARASH MARITIME ACADEMY, SOLENT UNIVERSITY AND HENCE DO NOT HAVE ANY SERVICE CHARGES.