New NI DPO Training and Certification Scheme

Offshore Dynamic Positioning
1

[B]International Dynamic Positioning Operators Association (IDPOA)[/B]

[B]New NI DPO Training and Certification Scheme (Offshore) 2015. 30 Salient Points in 10 minutes.
Please check NI Website for details.[/B]

Surinder Mahandwan, AFNI DP Operations Trainer Top Contributor

  1. DP Training Scheme : New changes with effect 01 Jan 2015.

  2. Old DP Training Scheme : Old Scheme will continue. But students enrolling after 01 Jan 2015 will come under new scheme

  3. Certification Title : Split into two schemes: a) Offshore Training and Certification b) Shuttle Tanker Training and Certification

  4. Pattern for Offshore Training and Certification : Basic Course – 60 Days DP Sea Time – Advanced Course – 60 Days DP Sea Time – Master Sign Off

  5. Qualifications : Same as before. In addition Electro-Technical Officers too can be enrolled for this DP Scheme. Cadets can do a max of 30 days DP Sea Time till they receive their CoC.

  6. DP Sea Time required for DPO Certification : This has been reduced to 120 Days. Those in old scheme will continue with 210 Days

  7. Class of Vessels : The DP Training on board can now be done on classed as well as unclassed vessels. NI will scrutinize the documents and issue the appropriate Certification viz: a) Restricted to Unclassed Vessels b) Limited Certificate c) Unlimited Certificate

  8. Assessments : The assessment after the Basic Course will continue. In addition the Simulator Course / Advanced Course will have a Practical Assessment and Online Examination. Formative assessments will continue as the Advanced Course progresses. This will also be conducted for students from the old scheme who are yet to do the Advanced Course. Will commence in Apr 2015.

  9. Failure in Online Assessment in Basic Course : Student gets 3 attempts. Centre where student passes will issue the Log Book

  10. Failure in Practical Assessment in Advanced Course : Only 1 attempt. Student has to repeat Advanced Course

  11. Failure in Online Assessment in Advanced Course : Student gets 3 Attempts. Cannot progress DP Sea Time till student passes

  12. Duration of Course : Both Basic and Advanced Courses must have a minimum of 28 h of tuition

  13. Time for Certification : This is now reduced to 4 years.

  14. DPO Log Book : New Grey Colour Log Books (offshore ) and Burgundy (ST) with effect 01 Jan 2015

  15. DP Sea Time Definition : Min of 2 h per day

  16. DP Auto Pilot : Cannot be claimed as DP Time

  17. Passive DP Sea Time : Can only be claimed between Basic and Advanced Courses. Max 25%

  18. DP Sea Time before Basic Course : Not valid in new scheme

  19. Excess DP Sea Time between Basic and Advanced Courses : Will be counted towards the 120 Days. But must have at least 30 days sea time after Advanced Course

  20. Company Verification Letter : Required for DP Sea Time entered in Log Book

  21. DP Sea Time Reduction : Max 30 days can be reduced. Can be done back to back with Advanced Course.

  22. Loss of Log Book : Candidate to apply to NI with affidavit and Police Report

  23. Fraudulent Applications : Banned for 5 years.

  24. Convert from Unclassed to Limited or Unlimited : 120 Days DP Sea Time + Task Section in Log Book + Master Sign + Company Letter

  25. Convert from Limited to Unlimited : 60 Days DP Sea Time + Master Sign + Company Letter

  26. Validity of DP Certificate : 5 years

  27. Conditions for Revalidation : a) 150 Days DP Sea Time within a period of 5 Years b) If the DPO has less than 150 Days, must do Advanced Course + 30 days DP Sea Time c) If no DP sea service, must do Advanced Course + 60 Days DP Sea Time d) A combination of 150 Days through various DP related activities is possible

  28. Masters’ and DP Sea Time logging : Masters’ holding DP Certificate can claim DP Sea Time as they are directly responsible for the activity.

  29. Revalidation dates : Commencing 2015 for Certificates issued 1984-2002, 2009, 2010. Check NI Website

  30. Reference materials to be provided to students at the end of Basic Course : a) DP Set up Practical Assessments Form b) DP Set up Practical Assessments Skills Table
    c) IMCA M103/ M109 / M117 / M166 / M182 / IMO 645

2

Under the old scheme does sea time acquired between basic advanced class count towards a certificate?

3

under the old scheme you can do your 30 days of familiarization and any day after that counts towards your 180 days. Only thing that you need to worry about is when you take your advanced class you’ll need 30 more days on Dp for the class to be accepted. So to answer your question. Yes. It is possible.

4

A guy that took DP Induction on of before December 31, 2014 needs 210 days of DP time, but a guy that takes it on January 1, 2015 or after only needs 120 days of DP time.

Put another way, those of us under the old scheme need almost twice as much DP time as the new guys. There is absolutely no reason why any of us should be required to have more than the same 120 DP days.

This is bullshit.

5

As someone who needs about a dozen days I couldn’t agree more.

6

Me too brother. Ten days to go. I would be really pissed if I had any more than that. Anyone that didn’t research and started after October are really getting screwed!

7

I wonder if those that are under the old rules can still claim a DP day with 1 hour or if they will need to also log 2 hours as the new rule requires? Will they be able to use some passive DP as days? The passive DP could at least even it out a little.

8

A few questions I asked Nautical Institute, and their replies.

Q: I have a question concerning the DP Certification Scheme of March 2014 concerning “Active” and “Passive” sea time.

Many of the ships in our fleet have standalone simulators onboard, and some ships are going into an out of service period where they will be at anchor for an indefinite period of time. It would make sense that this would be a good time to simulate DP emergency operations without putting the vessel at risk, while still making it possible to acquire passive sea time.

In the scheme, it states:

“1. Not all DP training has to be completed monitoring the DP system with the vessel in a high-risk position.
2. Passive DP sea time allows DPOs to gain DP training and familiarisation with a vessel without exposing the vessel to risk.
3. Passive DP sea time can only be claimed between the Induction and Simulator courses.
4. Most of the tasks in the task section of the logbook can be completed using passive DP sea time. The task section of the Institute DP logbook clearly states what training can be conducted in passive mode.”

Some of my shipmates are wondering why Passive sea time is only valid between the Induction and Simulator courses, as some of us have only Induction, and others have already had the Simulatior course.

NI: The reason that Passive time can only be used in-between the Induction and Simulator courses is because some of the tasks which need to be completed in the new task book can only be completed on Simulator mode. Then once the simulator time has been gained we can only accept Active time as we will need the simulator time gained to be put into active practice to consolidate what has been learned.

Q: Another clarification about the scheme, Is it true that if a person takes their Induction course after January 1 2015, they will not need as many sea time days as someone who took their Induction course December 30 2014?

NI: There is a misperception that the new scheme is easier to get through than the old scheme just because it requires 120 days. Actually, the new scheme is much more difficult to get the training completed than the old one. Let’s look at it in detail:

  1. The new scheme requires 120 days, with 2 hours minimum on the desk. The old scheme requires 210 days in total with a minimum of 1h on the desk. Multiply the number of hours per day, you have:
    New scheme: 120 * 2h = 240h
    Old scheme: 210 * 1h = 210 h

  2. The old scheme does not have a task book while the new one, the candidate is required to complete 110 tasks within 60 days.

  3. In the old scheme, the candidate only has to do an online test by completing the induction course. In the new scheme, the candidate is required to undertake: induction online test, simulator online test, practical test in the simulator course. If he fails the practical test, he has the repeat the simulator course again and until he passes that, he will not be able to do the simulator online test.

  4. In the old scheme, the candidate can carry on logging the DP sea time even though he has not performed well the simulator course. In the new scheme, until he completes all the tasks, passes both online and simulator practical test, the candidate is unable to log any further DP sea time.

Looking in general, the new scheme is much harder to complete than the old one. This is not about changing logbooks or trying to find a transition between the old and new schemes. The training and definitions are different, making more difficult to try to combine both of them.

It was also noted that in your email you were asking about the Active and Passive time for you and your colleagues who have already completed some courses. To be clear, the scheme which you are entered onto is decided by when you take your Induction course, for anyone who has already completed their Induction course or does so before 01/01/2015 they will be entered on the old scheme. The scheme that this is does not include Active and Passive time and so most of your questions will not be relevant to the scheme which you have been entered onto.

Best regards

Jonathan Hunt
Professional Services Executive

The Nautical Institute
202 Lambeth Road, London SE1 7LQ, United Kingdom
T: +44 (0)20 7928 1351 F: +44 (0)20 7401 2817
E: dp@nautinst.org W: www.nautinst.org

9

The most difficult part of the entire NI process is getting the first day of DP seatime.

If you are on a DP vessel and can get one hour of DP time, it should not be that much more difficult to get two hours. You are going to be on watch 8 or 12 hours a day. Some vessels are on DP 24 hours a day, some not at all, some in between. The only problem is getting on a DP vessel that does an adequate amount of DP work.

So there is an extra exam. Big deal.

Knowing the NI, the task book will be a major pain in the ass, and probably add another three months to processing time once it is submitted.

At a minimum, existing NI applicants in the old scheme should be able to elect to crossover to the new scheme.

This is what the NI should require:

  1. A 30 day intensive DP course followed by,

  2. 90 days of DP time, followed by,

  3. A one week capstone course and exam which would be given only in London by the NI itself. Anyone that passes leaves with their DP Certificate in hand.

Who would a company prefer to hire? Someone that took DP Induction last week and now needs 210 days, or someone that takes it next week and only needs 120 days?

10

[QUOTE=tugsailor;150858]
Who would a company prefer to hire? Someone that took DP Induction last week and now needs 210 days, or someone that takes it next week and only needs 120 days?[/QUOTE]

Good points made there tugsailor…

11

I like that idea to walk in to the london office, do the online exam and leave but you need to do the simulator part and that will require a simulator and instructor to be available.

12

[QUOTE=stellarseas;150856]A few questions I asked Nautical Institute, and their replies.

Q: Another clarification about the scheme, Is it true that if a person takes their Induction course after January 1 2015, they will not need as many sea time days as someone who took their Induction course December 30 2014?

NI: There is a misperception that the new scheme is easier to get through than the old scheme just because it requires 120 days. Actually, the new scheme is much more difficult to get the training completed than the old one. Let’s look at it in detail:

  1. The new scheme requires 120 days, with 2 hours minimum on the desk. The old scheme requires 210 days in total with a minimum of 1h on the desk. Multiply the number of hours per day, you have:
    New scheme: 120 * 2h = 240h
    Old scheme: 210 * 1h = 210 h

  2. The old scheme does not have a task book while the new one, the candidate is required to complete 110 tasks within 60 days.

  3. In the old scheme, the candidate only has to do an online test by completing the induction course. In the new scheme, the candidate is required to undertake: induction online test, simulator online test, practical test in the simulator course. If he fails the practical test, he has the repeat the simulator course again and until he passes that, he will not be able to do the simulator online test.

  4. In the old scheme, the candidate can carry on logging the DP sea time even though he has not performed well the simulator course. In the new scheme, until he completes all the tasks, passes both online and simulator practical test, the candidate is unable to log any further DP sea time.

Looking in general, the new scheme is much harder to complete than the old one. This is not about changing logbooks or trying to find a transition between the old and new schemes. The training and definitions are different, making more difficult to try to combine both of them.

It was also noted that in your email you were asking about the Active and Passive time for you and your colleagues who have already completed some courses. To be clear, the scheme which you are entered onto is decided by when you take your Induction course, for anyone who has already completed their Induction course or does so before 01/01/2015 they will be entered on the old scheme. The scheme that this is does not include Active and Passive time and so most of your questions will not be relevant to the scheme which you have been entered onto.

Best regards

Jonathan Hunt
Professional Services Executive

The Nautical Institute
202 Lambeth Road, London SE1 7LQ, United Kingdom
T: [+44 (0)20 7928 1351](tel:+44 (0)20 7928 1351) F: [+44 (0)20 7401 2817](tel:+44 (0)20 7401 2817)
E: dp@nautinst.org W: www.nautinst.org
[/QUOTE]

My husband is on a DP2 boat. Just to clarify, is it your understanding that after Induction and the 30 days familiarization, the requirements for an Unlimited DPO are 180 days after the 30 days familiarization plus the 30 days after the Advanced for a total of 210 or do the initial 30 days of familiarization count in the 180 days plus the 30 after Advanced toward the 210 total?

I think they have compounded the confusion with the new scheme, but to be fair it was not clearly defined before they added the newest level of confusion.

Thank you in advance for any assistance in helping to clear this up.
Ann
Wife/Scheduler of a Pre January 1, 2015 DPO Candidate