Overview - Officer Cadet Scholarship

The Maritime London Officer Cadet Scholarship (MLOCS) is a charity which provides the funds to enable young people to undertake the three to four year training required to become a Merchant Navy deck or engineer officer. The charity currently has 20 cadets aged between 16 and 23 at various stages of training.

MLOCS training is undertaken by Chiltern Maritime both at sea aboard a variety of commercial vessels and at colleges in Glasgow, South Shields (Newcastle) or Warsash (Southampton).

At the end of the cadetship, the trainees are free to choose their own career path. Maritime London Officer Cadets receive the highest standard of training in the industry and their skills are very much in demand from a variety of shipping companies. The scheme is open to EU citizens, permanently resident in the UK aged between 16 and 23 with the relevant academic and physical qualifications. 

The first phase of training begins with a 6 to 12 week induction course at a nautical college. Here the cadets learn basic seamanship, fire-fighting, survival and safety skills. This is followed by three years alternating between college and sea.

At the end of the course the cadets qualify as either a watchkeeping officer holding a Maritime & Coastguard Agency Certificate of Competence with a Merchant Navy foundation degree or an engineering officer.

It currently costs in the region of £35,000 to train a cadet. This covers everything from the cadet’s uniform allowance to salary and college fees. The scholarship is financially supported by a range of shore based firms and organisations industry with funds matched by the UK government’s SmarT scheme. Under the scheme, successful candidates are provided with an all expenses paid training.

The scholarship has been a huge success story since its launch in 1992, originally as the Lloyd’s Officer Cadet Scholarship, and many Maritime London cadets have won awards and have gone on to become Masters. Some are already working ashore with a wide range of firms.

Why support MLOCS?

A huge range of shore-based professions require professional staff with seafaring experience. Legal and insurance firms, classification societies and surveyors, ship management and shipping companies in particular rely on the skills which can only be obtained at sea.  A key reason for the success of the UK's maritime services sector has been the availability of a large pool of ex officers from the Merchant Navy. To run a world class maritime cluster, Maritime London needs a world class base of maritime talent available.

According to a study conducted by the UK's Department for Transport in 2006, there were 13,600 serving deck and engine officers, 5 per cent lower than in 1997. In  2006/7, there were around 690 new entrant officer cadets, but the number of UK deck and engine officers is projected to decline by more than a half by 2022, largely due to the high average age of officers currently in employment.

Attracting high calibre candidates to go to sea is an important way of ensuring that the UK remains the capital of global shipping. 

To continue to thrive, the shore based business community can help grow the seafaring pool by contributing to the scholarship.

We are currently supported by:

• Baltic Exchange
• Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation
• BMT
• Holman Fenwick & Willan
  
• Ince & Co
• International Underwriting Association
• King George's Fund for Sailors
• Lloyd's Register
• Lloyd's Underwriters' Association (on behalf of the marine syndicates at Lloyd's)
• Maritime Training Trust
• Miller Insurance Group
• Richards Butler
• Steamship Insurance
• The Sandra Charitable Society
• The Worshipful Company of Insurers
• The Worshipful Company of Master Mariners
• The Worshipful Company of Shipwrights
• The Worshipful Company of Master Mariners

For further details on how to sponsor a cadet, please contact Doug Barrow.