[QUOTE=kjfink;44110]I completely agree, I don’t want to be piloting on my own right out of school either. I was just making the inquiry since I know a lot of recent graduates who were seeking jobs were not even considered by tug companies due to their lack of having the TOAR & MOT. I was thinking having the tug experience would entice a company to put me on as a deck hand then a steersman/apprentice pilot until I was ready to fly solo.[/QUOTE]
You are not the first cadet who has come (to me) and said these words. However your own words are both the answer and the dilemma.
You want to be ‘signed off’ on a TOAR so you can get an apprentice slot. In reality you need to deck first, to get the apprentice slot, THEN after you have some time you fill out a TOAR, then you go steering.
The intention of a TOAR is to prove (somewhat) that you are ‘ready to go’ and stand your own watch. Somehow the expectation of receiving a TOAR has been muddled (by more than one cadet, at several schools) into the perception it is something that it never was intended to be.
The enticement is not that you have a TOAR and no experience, but that you are willing to learn, do, excel, stand out and stick it out. Then a TOAR will put you above the rest.