Route to become cruise ship captain

[MyMotherSaidINeverShould]

Just back from our first P&O cruise with DD 14. She did a tour of the bridge and wants to become a cruise ship captain when she’s older. I know nothing about the route into this. Can anyone advise on what subjects to study? Do you need to get a degree first and if so what/where is good (we’re based Southern England). What can she be doing at age 14 to learn the skills she’ll need? The tour guide said P&O does an apprenticeship scheme to work on the bridge - which other cruise companies offer this and how competitive is it? What age can you do it from and is it better to be an apprentice ASAP or do Alevels and degree first eg is there a fast track route for graduates? What do people working on the bridge (don’t know their job titles) earn? Grateful for any info. She hasn’t done anything related to boats/ships before so no existing experience.

At 14 she can start doing rya qualifications for sail/power boats.

The easiest qualification is competent crew and then day skipper.

most of the courses have a theoretical part (navigation mostly plus memorising signs and the like) and a practical part that you do separately.

https://www.rya.org.uk/training/

Family member started as an RNLI volunteer at 17 then did some sort of degree with merchant navy though that was quite a few years ago.

I don’t know anything about this but I would think the Merchant Navy would be a good place to start looking.

I don’t know anything about this but I would think the Merchant Navy would be a good place to start looking.

I don’t know anything about this but I would think the Merchant Navy would be a good place to start looking.

Sorry about the triple post, not sure what happened.

Have a look at Warsash Maritime Academy. There is also South Tyneside Maritime College but that's a lot further away from you.

Have a look at the Careers at Sea website. Cadetships are usually sponsored by shipping companies and comprise of training at specific colleges and time at sea. Entry requirements vary, but I believe you don't need an undergraduate degree.

https://www.careersatsea.org/

What about also looking at Sea Cadets if there’s a group in your area?

I’ve looked into this as my son was interested in the engineering side of things (but can’t now as won’t pass the medical side of things).

https://www.pocruisescareers.co.uk/roles-and-opportunities/deck-team/
https://www.pocruisescareers.co.uk/roles-and-opportunities/cadets/

i think you an join after Alevels / BTECs. Maths might be good and maybe a science but not sure.

Do you have a CCF at school or a sea cadets she could join?

As an alternative to think about is the navy - maybe she would be interested in that.

Very interesting career.

Do you have a sea cadets unit nearby? There is a nautical College in Glasgow (I think it’s called the maritime academy) which may be worth looking into.

Get a degree in maritime engineering or marine architecture. Southampton is always a good choice for anything maritime. Having a degree will give her more options, because chances are she won't want to spend her entire career at sea. My DH works in an office with a lot of retired captains who want to spend more time with their kids, for which they need decent computer and computational skills. Plus, I wouldn't encourage an 18 year old girl to go to sea as an apprentice, harsh though it sounds. She'll do better at 22 hopefully having some of the drinking experiments out of her system at university.

Get her to see the school’s careers advisor. They’ll be able to help and guide her.

She's 14. How likely is it that she'll want to do something else in a few weeks?

Sorry it’s actually the city of Glasgow college that it was incorporated into www.cityofglasgowcollege.ac.uk/studying-city-glasgow-college/our-courses/nautical

Could try reaching out to megankatemcg on Tiktok. I follow her, she used to work on them but her husband is nearly captain so she lives with him on the cruise ship he works on. She might be able to give your daughter some tips.

Hopefully they are better than in my day when they advised hairdressing or nursery nursing simply because I owned a vagina…I went and looked for myself and did a business degree.

Strong maths and physics skills are needed for the Warsash cadet course in Nautical Science.

www.solent.ac.uk/courses/undergraduate/nautical-science-fdsc

Great choice. Other role models
Karin Stahre-Janson: Became Royal Caribbean's first female captain in 2007 (Monarch of the Seas).
Lis Lauritzen: Appointed as Royal Caribbean's second female captain in 2011 (Vision of the Seas).
Lee Lordson: Advanced through ranks over 25 years at Royal Caribbean to command multiple vessels including Navigator of the Seas and Odyssey of the Seas.
Captain Louise Sara Captain Louise Sara awarded Merchant Navy Medal – Carnival UK Careers https://share.google/t3e3MFbKO3K7vnIlD

WISTA has raised funds to sponsor female cadet

a female officer cadet through the Maritime London Officer Cadet Scholarship, MLOCS. - Wista UK https://share.google/FSlUBEwpgNlwPd3AM

Solent University and warsash maritime college. a language as a GCSE or A level would be useful geography and possible travel and tourism qualification at college. What about work experience at Carnival UK which is in southampton too

The Warsash campus is very restricted these days, most of it having been sold off for residential development. A small part of it has been retained for practical training, but the courses offered are mainly delivered at Southampton Solent.

https://maritime.solent.ac.uk

I joined the merchant navy as a trainee deckhand, got my able seaman certificate then did a 9 month course to qualify as an officer of the watch. After getting the required sea time I went back and got my chief mates qualification. I’m about a year away from having the sea time needed to get my masters (captains) qualification. It might have changed now for a cadetship but I’m sure it used to be A levels needed in maths, English and 1 other in any subject but they preferred a science all at C or above. Warsash used to be the cream of the crop for maritime training. Now I think it’s Fleetwood but they do tend to go up and down.

Gosh this is amazing information thank you so much everyone! Sorry for my slow reply, I didn’t think I’d get any responses as it’s a bit of a niche topic! So many things to research here so we’ll start having a look through. Hadn’t thought about languages and geography being importbat although it’s obvious now I think about it! So many colleges to look into and I will check if we have sea cadets and RYA near us - near a river so hopefully do, I see the point that she might change her mind but it’s the first time she’s ever had any interest in doing anything as a career so I want to help her and, if she ends up doing something totally different, I’m sure having some of these skills will help with lots of things! Good tips about the inspirational women to follow too - on the bridge of the ship we went on it seemed to be all men so Im
glad there are women who’ve already gone into this! Thank you all, it is reallly appreciated!

Heather is another and always happy to encourage new cadets
www.instagram.com/mummy.at.sea?igsi=MW9od2Z6Z25hcHE3cQ==