V.Ships Cadet Programme UK

Deck Cadet John Smallbone joined V.Group in 2017. John joined the Group with no maritime experience following a varied career including roles as a court officer, rent officer, supermarket team leader and deputy general manager at a pub restaurant. John was attracted to a career at sea as an alternative to the 9-5 life and because it provided an opportunity to travel. He has recently completed his training:

Finally, being at the end of this road I’d say without doubt it was the best career move I’d made. I’ve seen sunsets and sunrises over New York. I’ve been to Times Square, Central Park and World Trade Centre and been paid to be there. I’ve seen places in the world less than 0.5% people ever will, from cities in China that nobody has ever heard of to the adrenaline rush of sailing through rough seas. I’ve met amazing people from all over the world and heard some amazing stories. And now, at the end of my Cadetship, I’ve got some amazing stories of my own.

Transferable skills that John has called upon include: time management, dispute resolution, organisation and teamwork.

If anything, starting my Cadetship in my mid-twenties has made my life easier. I know myself better than I did at 18, and it’s given me the drive to push through the hard times at college.

This example shows the benefits of considering recruits with limited maritime experience but with skills that are vital for success in the industry. When employing slightly older graduates for such roles, operators benefit from a wide range of life skills they have built up.

At the cadetship open day I heard cadets and training managers speak of orals and SQA examinations. Never would I have thought that time would go by so quick. I am coming towards the end of my HND deck cadetship and now preparing for orals. During this time I have sailed with many seafarers on different vessel types each sharing their knowledge and experience with me. Equally at college, lecturers have spent their time sharing their knowledge and using the best resources to prepare me academically for sea. As a young girl I always knew I wanted to go to sea and my first sea trip confirmed this. Hand on heart I can say this is definitely the career for me, I cannot see myself doing anything else. An interesting and challenging industry I’d highly recommend anyone to be a part of.

In V.Group we fully understand the importance of well-trained seafarers, which is why we’re committed to recruiting and training cadets as part of our comprehensive career development programme. We run two programs, United Kingdom and International.

Our current cohort includes over 1000 cadets from all over the world, undergoing training at all stages of cadetship. The UK cadetship programme currently has over 50 cadets. We focus on developing the skills, knowledge and competence of our recruits to be future officers, with training completed during both seagoing service and academia at maritime colleges and academies.

To maximise their understanding within the industry, we aim for cadets to experience time onboard as many different ship types as possible throughout their cadetship.

All officers onboard play an active role in the cadet development programme, while our UK shore based cadet training team, Florentina Peteu & Jemma Paterson actively manage the process. Our cadets are trained to have absolute regard to safety, security and the maritime environment, receiving mentoring and career guidance throughout their training with us.

One of our Cadets, Noah Robinson tells us, in his own words, about his first Seagoing Experience.

Hi, I’m Noah. I spent just over 5 months as an engine cadet on an LPG tanker Eco Loyalty moving around Europe all summer and I loved it! This was my first time working at sea, so I didn’t know it, but I had yet to encounter a new world’s worth of experiences in this industry. During my college phase, it was not uncommon to hear stories from other cadets or lecturers about both good and bad experiences whilst being away, but regardless, I most definitely felt I was in safe hands even if I was a tad anxious before leaving.

Unfortunately, the stories which stood out were usually the ones from other cadets about them feeling neglected or not being able to cope with the workloads/ living conditions etc. For this reason, I tried to lower my expectations of entitlement for everything I was yet to encounter. My logic was that if I didn’t have a high expectation of entitlement then I would seldom feel let down or disappointed upon facing reality.

To my surprise upon arrival, I was given my own cabin on-board and even though I’m not picky with my diet, the food happened to be similar to the Caribbean soul food I was already used to from back home so needless to say I got on well with the chief cook. Nevertheless, the hard work soon began from day 1 and I knew it was only discipline and perseverance which could get me through my time onboard. It was much easier in thought as opposed to practice when anticipating long workdays followed by intense revision in the evenings and even more foreign to me was learning the fact that everyone else on-board had adapted to this lifestyle through speaking English as a second language. My respect had grown massively for individuals who had mastered my own newfound craft all entirely through vocabulary as a second language as I suddenly felt like my struggles were relatively miniscule compared to fellow colleagues.

Upon arriving at a ship with no Wi-Fi and limited amenities, I used to count the days and add up weeks until I’d be back home to ‘normal’ life. However, my perspective soon changed when I was honest with myself and adapted to what was simply my transition into work life which was separated from home life.

It was only at this point that time began to flow by more smoothly as I put less importance on being anxious to go home but instead decided to enjoy what was present knowing all circumstances were temporary and I would soon be looking back on this time reminiscing the fun times. I knew, when I came to the end of my original 4-month contract, that I’d be calling Jemma and Florentina begging for more time on-board, extending my time spent to about 5 and a half months in total!

Having heard previous nightmares about cadets failing to complete their TRB or coming home with inadequate signatures, I put a great deal of importance on understanding my TRB tasks and planning ahead for all targets to be met. As a whole, your TRB can come across as rather daunting initially but what saved me from disaster was breaking down each section into monthly and even weekly targets. To start with, I drafted a spreadsheet on my computer of all tasks I needed to achieve in my first sea phase and completely eradicated anything I could put off until my second sea phase. I then broke down the tasks into monthly, weekly, and daily, targets (e.g., by the end of my first month onboard I want all system drawings to be traced and such corresponding descriptions written to be checked and approved by my chief engineer, so this equated to roughly one drawing and description every other day in order to stay on track). This meant I could relax about what was yet to come for the future as I only needed to focus on achieving my daily targets which took care of weekly targets which then accumulated to completing monthly targets etc. Before I knew it, I was ahead of schedule with more than enough time to spare at the end of my contract because I had just taken things day by day, doing a little bit of something each afternoon.

Working out a consistent routine helped me to focus and gave me the opportunity to over-achieve on targets when I had the extra time or energy. It also meant if I didn’t have the time or energy on any given afternoon, I could afford to prioritize rest because I was not falling behind any danger of deadline and whatever wasn’t covered today might only take me an extra 20 minutes to cover the next day when I did have the extra time/energy.

One of the biggest areas of growth I noticed from this summer were my social skills. Doing the job that we do as seafarers can require us to make cool-headed decisions whilst under immense pressure or in very uncomfortable environments. Especially in the engine room where you spend hours a day in a hot, noisy machinery space, being able to communicate clearly and pull your weight as an equal member of the team is absolutely vital for healthy working relationships.

It is inevitable that as an officer you will come across colleagues whom you may not get along with or disagree with their style of work. But I just set out to be the best version of myself possible. Being able to handle a firm talking to from your seniors is something I did not like but it was sometimes my only option to keep things running smoothly even if I believed I hadn’t done anything wrong.

I didn’t take it personally, and I reminded myself that I was only on this ship because I wanted to be there, and not because I was being forced. So, in other words, I needed everyone on that ship much more than anyone there needed me. This attitude helped me to keep a smile on my face and keep my relationships amicable even through the tensest of moments.

If I were to give any piece of advice to a cadet about to join their first vessel, it would be: learn how to adapt to your circumstances and grow an appreciation for the smaller things, for example, it could be as simple as having your favourite cookies replenished when the ship is given new provisioning or it could be that you’re given permission to get off the ship and have a few hours to yourself exploring a new city in a part of the world you would have never imagined yourself in.

Overall, I think my time away this summer was life changing and I left my ship feeling like a different person than who I was when I joined because of my attitude to soak up as much knowledge as possible and I did the most to take advantage of all opportunities afforded my way. I travelled to 18 new ports in 12 different countries, I picked up some conversational Russian and Filipino vocabulary on the way and even made relationships with people from all over the world within a matter of months. However, if you ask me, I think the most exciting part is that this is only the beginning…

We would like to thank the Captain, Officers and Crew on board Eco Loyalty for the warm welcome of our cadets and the excellent training and mentoring they offer. This is a very valuable experience for both the vessel and especially the cadet. Thank you!

My experience so far as a cadet has been extremely positive. I’ve had the opportunity to work on both passenger and gas vessels which have given me great insight into life at sea as a deck officer. I am constantly learning and thoroughly enjoying it. I am looking forward to qualifying as an officer at the end of the year and embarking on my new career at sea.