Entry & progression
Three approved training areas, five short courses, a radio ticket and a medical. ECDIS becomes mandatory at this level. So does medical care on board ship — which is not the course the Chief Mate sits.
The approved training areas
- Command navigation — planning and executing a passage as the person answerable for it.
- Shipmaster's business and management — the documents, the certificates, the law, the commercial reality.
- Vessel operations and administration — logs, records, drills, crew, the running of the ship.
Those three areas are the spine of Modules 2, 3 and 4 of this course. They map to the STCW Code management-level competences. They are the difference between a watchkeeper and a master.
The short courses — and the two everybody confuses
| Requirement | At Master <500 (Yachts) |
|---|---|
| Basic safety training, including security awareness | Yes |
| PSCRB (survival craft and rescue boats other than fast rescue boats) | Yes |
| Advanced firefighting | Yes |
| Medical first aid (A-VI/4 paras 1–3) | No — that is the Chief Mate course |
| Medical care on board ship (A-VI/4 paras 4–6) | Yes |
| ECDIS | Yes — mandatory at this level |
| GMDSS radio operator certificate | Yes |
| Certificate of medical fitness | Yes |
Medical first aid and medical care on board ship are two different courses under two different paragraphs of the STCW Code. Chief Mate <3000 (Yachts) requires medical first aid. The two Master grades require medical care on board ship — the higher one, the one that assumes there is nobody above you to call. Watchkeeper requires neither. People book the wrong one.
ECDIS stops being optional
At Watchkeeper and Chief Mate level, ECDIS is required only if you are serving on an ECDIS-equipped yacht. At Master <500 and Master <3000 it is mandatory, full stop — regardless of what is fitted on the boat you are on today.
The CoST — and the trap inside it
Basic safety training in Australia is the Certificate of Safety Training (CoST), and Australia bundles five elements into it, not four: personal survival techniques, fire prevention and fire fighting, elementary first aid, personal safety and social responsibilities, and security awareness training.
WARNING — Only AMSA can issue a CoST — and it gates your sea service AMSA, verbatim: "Only AMSA can issue a CoST. If you completed basic safety training overseas, you cannot use it to obtain an Australian CoST." You must be trained in Australia, with an AMSA-approved provider.
And the sting: "Sea service completed before your CoST is issued may not count as qualifying sea service." The CoST is the gate to the entire international system. Get it first, or risk having good sea time struck out.
CAUTION — The name of the approved course AMSA requires an approved course covering command navigation, shipmaster's business and management, and vessel operations and administration, and separately states that foreign yacht CoC holders must complete the full diploma course. We are not putting a specific AQF qualification title in your hands, because AMSA's own certificate page does not name one. Confirm the exact enrolment with AMSA and the approved provider before you pay.