Earn your sea legs

Page B3

If you've ever dreamed of a life at sea, the Canadian Coast Guard would like to hear from you.

The coast guard is accepting applications for enrollment in its Canadian Coast Guard Officer Training Plan, a four-year program offered at the Canadian Coast Guard College in Sydney, N.S.

"It's a four-year degree granting program for training as marine engineers or navigation officers in the Canadian Coast Guard," explained Peter Brand, acting superintendent of nautical science training at the college.

"When they recruit, they recruit into the civil service. They're not recruiting as students; they're recruiting employees. So they recruit employees, they bring them into the civil service, and then they give them a job for four years to go into training to become either a navigation officer or an engineering officer for the coast guard."

The coast guard covers the cost of books and tuition for students in the program, and also provides them with regulation coast guard uniforms, medical and dental coverage, meals and accommodation, and a monthly allowance. The cost of travelling to the college at the beginning of the student's studies is also covered, as is the cost of a return trip home for Christmas.

Students completing the four-year program will earn a bachelor of technology in nautical sciences degree upon graduation, as well as certification as an officer that is valid on commercial ships.

Upon graduating, participants in the training program must serve an additional four years as a ship's officer with the coast guard, or as a public servant elsewhere in the public service. Participants must also agree to serve those four years whenever they are assigned.

The 45-month training program is offered in both English and French, and consists of both classroom time as well as time at sea.

Students in the marine engineering plan spend 11 months at the college, followed by four months at sea, then another 16 months at the college, five months at sea, and another nine months at the college.

Students in the navigation officer portion of the plan spend 11 months at the college, followed by seven months at sea, then return to studies at the college for 10 months, followed by another eight months at sea, and nine more months at the college.

All students in the officer training plan must complete a number of core courses, including both general academic studies, such as math, physics, communication skills, and computers. The program also includes courses such as damage control, pollution control, seamanship, signals, and ship construction, specifically aimed at preparing students for a career as a coast guard officer.

According to Brand, the training provided by the coast guard college offers prospective students not only a guaranteed, full-time job upon graduation, but it also offers them a career.

"The graduates, when they enter into the fleet, they enter at the lowest level of the officers within the fleet. But they have the tools, they have the theory, to be able to write their certification and move up the ranks of the coast guard. It's really a career path that we're offering. And graduates from the college are found all through the coast guard today. Actually, they're found outside as well, in the private sector. And they've moved up into the ranks of senior management inside the coast guard. So that's really what we're offering, a career path into senior management of the coast guard, if you stay with it long enough," he said.

And more and more graduates are staying with it, Brand explained, due in part to the changes the coast guard has made in its leave system.

"We actually find today that most of the graduates, they tend to stay at sea. Going to sea today is not like it once was. When I went to sea it was more or less you stayed at sea and there was no leave system, and you built up your vacation and you got it whenever you could. The coast guard today offers a very, very good leave system. It's month on, mont off on most of the vessels. So for a person with a family life and other interests, really you can have that sea-going life and still have the other side as well. There's all kinds of opportunities. Many of the guys who go to sea have businesses on the side, or they go back to school in their off time," Brand said.

"So I guess that's what they're offering today too, is a life where you can actually have a home life as well as a life at sea."

To be considered for entry into the Officer Training Program in September 2002, applications must be submitted by Jan. 21, 2002.

For more information about a career with the Canadian Coast Guard, call the college registrar at 902-567-3208, or visit the Canadian Coast Guard College Web site at http://www.cgc.ns.ca.