How to become a Fitter in Merchant Navy ?
Fitter is a important rank in the the Engine Department of a Merchant Navy ship.
Fitter comes under Second Engineer and his job is to follow the orders given to him by Second Engineer.
Fitter assists the Engineers with the maintenance and also does the fabrication work as per requirement under the supervision of Second Engineer.
Fitter is not a watch keeper and hence works only in day time. That is from morning 7 to evening 6. The work hours may differ from ship to ship and will also be called if any emergency occurs.
Normally there will be only one fitter present on a ship, but on some ship’s where major fabrication work needs to be done, company might give an additional fitter on deck, whose rank will be Deck Fitter.
If you want to become a Fitter in Merchant Navy, you have to do The General Purpose (GP) Rating Course.
Course Duration and Eligibility Criteria :
The General Purpose (GP) Rating Course is 6 months course.
Candidates with a minimum of 40 % marks in 10th Standard from a recognized Board with Science, Mathematic as subjects and also have a minimum of 40 % marks in English language either in 10th, 12th or diploma / degree exam can apply for this course.
The candidate should age between 17.5 to 25 years at the time of commencement of the course.
The candidate should be medically fit, the medical tests will be carried out by the DG Shipping approved doctor at the time of admission.
Course fees :
The General Purpose (GP) Rating Course fees varies from institute to institute.
The total course fees will range between 2,00,000 – 3,50,000 rupees.
Top Colleges in India :
- BP Marine Academy, Navi Mumbai.
- Mumbai Maritime Training Institute, Mumbai.
- NUSI Maritime Academy, Goa.
- AMET University, Chennai.
- Coimbatore Marine College, Coimbatore.
- TS Rahaman, Mumbai.
- Yak Educational Trust, Mumbai.
- The Great Eastern Institute of Maritime Studies, Mumbai.
- Maritime Education Training and Research Institute, West Bengal.
- UV Patel College of Engineering, Gujarat.
Career Path :
After passing the GP rating course, the candidate will join a merchant navy ship as a Trainee Fitter.
After gaining some experience in the Trainee Fitter rank, the candidate will get promoted to the Fitter.
Normally the Trainee Fitter has to do minimum three contract to be eligible for promotion.
Please note that the promotional criteria may differ from company to company.
The fitter’s contract duration will be (9 +/- 1) months. But there are some companies who started offering (6 +/- 1) months contracts.
After completing 36 months sea time on ship as Trainee Fitter or Fitter, the candidate can also apply for Class 4 COC and can also become a Marine Engineer.
