Designated Examiner Question

Professional Mariner Forum
1

Does a person need to receive a letter from the USCG to be a DE or is completion of a DE course alone qualify the mariner. I have attached a portion of NVIC 6-97 and am still a little confused.

LEFT [I]Is it necessary for the Coast Guard to certificate me as a Designated Examiner?[/LEFT]
[/I][LEFT]No, a Coast Guard Certificate or Letter is not required. You may be identified as a
Designated Examiner as part of a Coast Guard course approval or as part of a Coast
Guard-accepted program of training and assessment. In these cases, the review of
your qualifications takes place at the time the Coast Guard approves a course (see
reference(b)), or during an audit conducted under a quality standards system (see
reference ©).
However, if you have a certificate of completion from a “train-the-trainer” course
approved by the Coast Guard or based on IMO Model Courses or other Coast Guardaccepted
training program, and have evidence that you have at least 36 weeks of
experience as an instructor in the maritime field, you may obtain a letter from the
Coast Guard stating your special qualification as a Designated Examiner. The letter
may be limited to your field of experience. The letter will include a special reference
to allow for assessments with certain classes of simulator when there is evidence to
support this qualification. Procedures for receiving such a letter are discussed below.[/LEFT]

2

The way I read that, there are 2 ways/answers. If you are working at a school, you get approved when the school gets approved, certified, etc.
Or if you have a background and or training in teaching maritime subjects you can get a letter to specify that. I thought about getting such a letter, but I couldn’t think of a good reason for having it, other than another bullet on my resume…

3

To be a “Designated Examiner” (DE) you must be specifically approved as one by the National Maritime Center. Completion of a course is not enough.

Only Coast Guard approved DEs can conduct assessments for towing vessels and sign a TOAR. A TOAR signed by anyone not a DE will not be accepted.

You do not need to be a DE to conduct STCW assessments “in-service.” If you meet the qualification assessor requirements dicussed in the specific NVIC or Policy Letter for the type of assessments, you can conductt and sign for a successful demonstration by a regular member of the crew of the vessel on which you are working. Both the assessor and the candidate have to be regular crew members of the vessel. Also, you must conduct the assessment [B]exactly[/B] as described in the control sheet.