Currently a 3/M Unlimited with STCW II/I looking to move up from an Operational Level STCW to a Management Level STCW. I have been working on smaller tonnage vessels (under 500 GT) the last five years, so tonnage upgrades haven’t been much in the cards but finally made my way onto a 3000 GT vessel and was able to upgrade to 2/M Unlimited/1600 Master.
After recently submitting, I was told to take a new slough of classes (costing roughly $8,000 not including lodging and transportation) by the NMC to qualify for the 3000 GT Masters Management Level endorsement for my STCW.
This seems a little ludicrous, and I was curious if there were others in a similar position or other possible avenues of upgrading other than spending a $8,000 and a months worth of time.