Frequently Asked Questions for Cadets

No, SMC will enroll you at your chosen Nautical College. Once you have accepted your offer, SMC will register you with the college.

We appreciate that you will be eager to find out what ship you are going on  and where you will be joining that ship, however ship itineraries are very fluid and can change last minute. Therefore you will likely find a week before you are scheduled to join, we will give you as much notice as possible.

During College phases you will likely get standard college holidays i.e. Christmas and Easter but be aware that sometimes additional courses can be booked during these times. On sea phases the priority is your sea time but we always endeavor to give you time off before returning to College.

Any offer made will be conditional on obtaining an ENG 1 Medical, we suggest getting this as soon as possible after accepting an offer as without it you can’t start college. In some cases we may ask you to get a medical before an offer is made to ensure you can obtain one.

ENG1 Medicals can only be carried out by Maritime Coastguard Agency (MCA) approved doctors, you will find a list of approved doctors here: MCA approved doctors

The vast majority of ships now have some form of internet, it could be wi-fi or access to ships emails. The bandwidth will allow you message and check social media but you wont be able to download or stream in most cases. But in any case you will be able to communicate with family and friends on a regular basis.

This depends on your chosen discipline, Deck Cadets need to accrue 12 months sea time over 2 phases and Engine/Electro-Technical need to accrue 8 months. This is split down into trips of varying lengths depending on the type of vessel you are training on.

SMC work with 6 leading Maritime Colleges across the UK. See our College’s page for more information on the location and facilities.