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Education and training

MCA shortens chief mate's exam

17 March 2023

The Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) has made some interim changes for the chief mates' safety exam as part of planned improvements in certification.

The MCA originally initiated a proposed approach in which college lecturers would develop a question bank. The Scottish Qualifications Authority (SQA) would the create a paper based on these questions.

However, this would take some time to achieve, so as an interim measure the MCA has reviewed the safety papers produced by SQA and trimmed down the questions from five to four in Navigation and from six to five in Stability.

This means the duration of the exam is now reduced from 3 hours to 2.5 hours. 

It is the first step towards making the assessments relevant to the roles performed onboard. Changes and improvements to assessments will be made in conjunction with the outcome of the working group from the Cadet Training and Modernisation programme and in consultation with stakeholders.

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