So I just got back from my first assignment out of the Academy and I’m having a bit of a derp moment in regards to keeping my license up to date. I know that almost every endorsement I have on my MMC is good for 5 years until I need to renew my credential, but I’ve also heard some of these endorsements expire in a year or two after being issued and require supplementary classes to be reapplied.
Can anyone tell me how I’m supposed to know which endorsements have expiration dates and which don’t? Is there a register online someone can direct me to for this?
Also, side question, but I work for MSC now and they had us retake practically all the basic competency courses I have on my MMC as well as some of the higher level classes like Advanced Firefighting. Since they issued me new certificates for those, does that mean any classes covered under that with an expiration date have now been updated?
As far as your license and any endorsements go, just look at the expiration date of your MMC. That said there are classes such as small arms that require requalification every year or so. Small Arms however is not a MMC endorsement.
The completion certificates you received for BST and Advanced Fire Fighting and the like can be used to satisfy STCW requirements when you renew your MMC next time.
Suggest you become familiar with the USCG NMC Website as it has all that information.
Everything in the MMC expires at the same time, unless the endorsement specifically states it is not valid after a specified date. Those w]ere not uncommon during the transition period (grandfathering) to the 2013 regulation change, but I cannot think of a reason they would have been added to an endorsement after 2017.
The only “updating” of endorsements is the renewal of the MMC. The courses MSC had you take sound like the ones you will need to provide when you renew your MMC. There are courses required to renew STCW endorsements for Basic Training, Proficiency in Survival Craft, Fast Rescue Boat, and Advanced Firefighting. If you have one year of service in the 5 years prior to renewal, you can take “Revalidation” courses that only cover things not normally done in shipboard drills. If you don’t have the one year of serviced in the past five years, you need longer “Refresher” courses or to re-take the complete original courses.
If you have a Tankerman PIC endorsement I believe there is a sea time requirement on tanker vessels of 90 days in order to renew the endorsement, otherwise it will fall into continuity.
Also, while not an endorsement, don’t forget that your STCW is only valid if your Medical Certificate is valid, which is a 2-year renewal for international.
Didn’t the academy you went to give you any information about how to maintain and upgrade your stuff?
There is also renewal training for Fast Rescue Boats. Radar Observer if you don’t have one year of service in the past five that included using radar for navigation and collision avoidance. Also, Tankerman-PIC if you do not have 90 days on tank ships and 2 cargo transfers in the past 5 years, and Tankerman-Assistant if you do not have 90 days on tank ships in the past 5 years.
They glossed over a lot of the upkeep stuff over the years and usually just blanketly told us to re-up our licenses every 5 years to maintain our endorsements. They talked about the 365 days of active seatime per 5 year period and other general info about maintaining the license as a whole but rarely ever went into the nitty-gritty of individual endorsements.
Presumably they did try to teach you to read the CFR’s. That is still a major part of the license exam. You should be able to read for yourself the regulations for renewals and upgrades. If you can’t, hand in your license.
I wouldn’t have a license if I couldn’t read the CFRs. You could just refer me to the section in the CFRs that lists all maritime endorsements and their corresponding expiration dates and renewal procedures instead of making me waste 20+ minutes searching through the books for it.
Circling back to what I already posted above, look at the appropriate Checklist for your license/rating on the CG’s National Maritime Center’s website. The Checklists reference the applicable CFRs. For example: mcp_fm_nmc5_05_web.pdf (uscg.mil) or mcp_fm_nmc5_241_web.pdf (uscg.mil)
When people graduate academies (CMA, in your case) there is an expectation of a certain amount of resourcefulness to acquire information without it having to be handed to you on a plater. Whether you realize it or not your original post comes across from someone just starting out in the biz, not someone who graduated a four year institution.
Going back to your OP…exactly what “endorsements” did you have a question about or thought had a year or 2 expiration date?