“I was working in an admin office and quickly discovered that a monotonous office environment really wasn’t for me and I needed to do something with a bit more of a challenge. I already had an interest in maritime engineering so I started to find out what was available and came across the cadetships and decided to apply.”

“I had done a GCSE in Engineering at school and I always liked working with my hands which included doing repairs on my car and also a little boat I owned. Stripping down parts and maintaining machinery.”

George is a cadet engineer studying at Humber Maritime College and is finding the course he is doing very engaging and interesting.

“We’re learning a lot from the very supportive tutors who have prepared us with a good understanding of the basics for our sea phases of the course.”

“We’ve got tutors who specialise in Marine Engineering and Maths, as there is a lot of maths involved in what we are doing. The engineering side deals with practical knowledge and the maths is more physics-based and we’re learning a lot from the very supportive tutors who have prepared us with a good understanding of the basics for our sea phases of the course. We need to know about engines and all of the different systems onboard, and also knowing what to expect on the ships. And there’s quite a lot on safety in the course as you are working with a lot of potential hazards.”

George found his first sea phase exciting and also naturally triggering first-time nerves which he soon overcame.

“The crew onboard the ships could not have been more helpful to me.”

“The crew onboard the ships could not have been more helpful to me, and especially the engineers I was working with. And it really helped as the third engineers and second engineers had of course been through the same cadetship so they knew exactly what I needed to learn. And the Chief Engineer would sit down with you when you had some free time and talk you through things. It was a really good experience.”

“Seeing the machinery first-hand and working on it was really rewarding. And being left to get on with jobs like servicing generators you’d been trained on was good. It’s the full experience of being onboard and putting into practice what you have learned at college.”

George has also enjoyed life on board with their crews.

George in his sea phases works on supply and standby vessels that go out to the gas rigs in the North Sea. The supply ships sail in to port every two weeks to pick up more supplies to take out to the rigs. The standby vessels are at sea for four weeks just in case anything has gone wrong on the rigs or if they need any support generally.

George has also enjoyed life on board with their crews, which on his vessels number between 12 and 15 deck and engineering officers and other crew. And living on board 24 hours a day George has enjoyed.

“Yes, it’s really different! You have your own cabin which really helps when you are working on your training record book which can be quite demanding. There are lots of tasks you have got to get signed off for your training and your cabin lets you focus on that. Otherwise when everyone is together it’s really social. It can be quite hard switching off from the work environment when you’ve been onboard all the time – but on the ships I was on you can easily relax and socialise.”

“I would definitely say that is a very rewarding career within the marine engineering department from what I have experienced so far. If you are looking for a challenge and you want to push yourself this is definitely the right career for you. It is a life experience you wouldn’t get in a shore job.”