Thursday, 07 October 2010

NEW INTAKE OF CADETS AT NAFC MARINE CENTRE

A new intake of 24 students – 13 deck cadets and 11 engineer cadets – have started their training at the NAFC Marine Centre and are about to embark on the Merchant Navy officer cadet programme.  

The students will be the second intake to follow the new National Certificate (NC) /Higher National Certificate (HNC) route introduced last year. This new course of study, developed by the Centre’s Shetland School of Nautical Studies (SSNS) in partnership with several other major UK nautical colleges, has been a big success with all of last year’s intake achieving their NC in the first year.  We have also achieved our aim of improving retention into the second year by providing a more gradual academic ramp on which to build the HNC/HND studies which occur in the later years of the programme.

As last year, the National Certificate is common to both the Deck and Engineer Officer routes, which means that all students will be taught by both deck and engineering lecturers on common subjects.  

Head of School, Jan Rigden said: “We are delighted that – once again – we have a full complement of cadets joining our programme, with 12 students from Shetland, four from Orkney and eight from the Scottish Mainland.  It is always pleasing to see a good mix of candidates from both within and outwith Shetland, which demonstrates that the reputation and awareness of our training programme and facilities continues to grow.”

The course gives cadets the opportunity to put theory into practice with alternating periods at sea and in the classroom.  The students are sponsored by a variety of training and shipping companies, including four who are sponsored annually by Shetland Islands Council Transport Services – Ferries.

Jan Rigden continued: “The Merchant Navy continues to offer great career prospects for both young men and women, and UK officers are very much in demand and have excellent prospects on qualification. 

“Our next intake will be in 2011, and we hope that any young people interested in a challenging career at sea will contact us in the New Year for further information.”

Further information:

For further information, please contact: Jan Rigden, NAFC Marine Centre, tel 01595 772000, email jan.rigden@nafc.uhi.ac.uk or visit www.nafc.ac.uk

Or, Louise Rosie, Shaw Marketing and Design Ltd, tel 01595 692465, email louise.rosie@shaw-online.com or visit www.shaw-online.com