Sarah

Candidates for ICS examinations rarely come directly from a seafaring occupation. But one of our students did just that.

She was obviously highly-motivated. She already had the equivalent of a First Mates Foreign Going certificate of competency.  While at sea with a cruise line which ran sailing ships, she was going for a BSc (Hons) in Marine Operations Management with distance learning from Warsash University but found it hard to find time to study.

She then went for a position on a ferry servicing the Scottish Highlands and Islands and thereafter a cableship.  But while she was at sea, things deteriorated at home. So while supporting her family by performing shorter voyages, she studied for her ICS exams.

With the assistance of both TutorShip and the Educational Trust Fund, she has successfully progressed up the qualification ladder. She now has just two more exams, Legal Principles in Shipping Business and Economics of Sea Transport and International Trade, to gain her PQE.

Of the ICS distance-learning arrangements, she says, "I would like to do the TutorShip course again as I found it an invaluable system and way of learning and I have learned it is beneficial to have support and contact from the tutors."

It is this sort of ambition that the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers Education Fund applauds and does its best to nurture.