Frequently Asked Questions for Families

Supporting Cadets

As a parent, guardian, partner or friend of someone who is thinking about going to sea as a career you might have some questions, especially if the Merchant Navy and Cadetships are new to you. We have created this page to hopefully answer some of your questions and allow you to support your family member in there new career.

Stream Marine Careers are the Cadets management company, this means we manage and oversee all aspects of the Cadets training. We are here to support them at all stages and offer guidance to allow them to progress through training. You will find more information about the structure of the courses on the Nautical College page.

We encourage our Cadets to take responsibility for all aspects of training right from the start of the process as ultimately they are going to be going to sea and for that a certain maturity and self-discipline is needed but we appreciate that as a family you also want to support them, to ensure they meet there potential. We hope the below information will help but we are always happy to help if you have any other queries.

The Merchant Navy is the collective term for commercial shipping. Commercial vessels are owned and operated by civilians and have no affiliation to a countries military. Commercial shipping includes, cargo and passenger vessels.

Yes, Merchant vessels are not part of the UK military. We ensure Cadets are onboard vessels that are operating in safe areas. Like any job there are risks but the Cadets receive Health and Safety training before going to sea. Whilst onboard they are supervised closely by the ships officers and the vessels subject to regular inspections to ensure they are safe for not on the cadets but the full crew.

We strongly encourage the Cadets to stay in halls of Residence during college phases unless there are less than a 40 minute commute away. This is for a number of reasons including; getting used to living away from home, to build a relationship with peers out with the classroom, studying with peers and being able to access the college library etc..

This depends on their 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, but could be up to 4 to 5 months per trip.

If your Cadet is going to be staying at College during phase 1, we suggest you encourage them to arrange travel in plenty of time. Cadets are responsible for arranging there own travel to and from college. SMC and the cadets sponsoring company will arrange and pay for travel to and from ships.

Yes, all ships have some form of communication system be it ships email, ships phone or wi-fi. Cadets will also be able to use their mobiles whilst in ports to contact home but if abroad this can be expensive so its worth looking in to roaming packages for data etc..