Engineer switching from Mechanical to Marine

[lazypast]

Hi, I've had a longstanding interest in working at sea. The prospect of working as an engineer at sea is quite an exciting one. I have a degree in mechanical engineering and 2 years (non relevant) experience in design and manufacture in the oil and gas industry.

Im just wondering if it's possible to switch over to become a engineer officer of the watch. Advice from a UK perspective would be ideal. But to make things a little less simple I'm currently residing in New Zealand and the advice I have just received here is to gain sea experience as a junior engineer then to apply to a maritime school to get a competency certificate. As a junior engineer I wouldn't need an STCW.

I could write directly to each company explaining my situation. But I doubt I'll ever see a vacancy for someone in my position. The vacancies are either seafarer, fully certified by a maritime school, or a cadet who just has qualifications from high school. Any advice would be appreciated.

 

[SteamKing]

Hi, I've had a longstanding interest in working at sea. The prospect of working as an engineer at sea is quite an exciting one. I have a degree in mechanical engineering and 2 years (non relevant) experience in design and manufacture in the oil and gas industry.

Im just wondering if it's possible to switch over to become a engineer officer of the watch. Advice from a UK perspective would be ideal. But to make things a little less simple I'm currently residing in New Zealand and the advice I have just received here is to gain sea experience as a junior engineer then to apply to a maritime school to get a competency certificate. As a junior engineer I wouldn't need an STCW.

I could write directly to each company explaining my situation. But I doubt I'll ever see a vacancy for someone in my position. The vacancies are either seafarer, fully certified by a maritime school, or a cadet who just has qualifications from high school. Any advice would be appreciated.

HM Government has issued instructions on how to become qualified as a merchant mariner:

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/uk-seafarer-careers-training-provision-and-information

This site also has syllabi for instruction and sample exams to review.