The UK’s Maritime & Coastguard Agency (MCA) has now introduced a new Deck OOW Unlimited oral examination structure, whereby eligible candidates will now undertake a two-part online process.
To support this new approach, the Notice of Eligibility (NoE) and Notice of Assessment (NoA) format has been updated, the oral examination booking process has been amended to take account of the associated changes, and the online oral examinations will be recorded to provide objective evidence in the event of a candidate appeal or an examiner’s concern over a candidate’s conduct.
Following the use of MS Teams-based online face-to-face oral examinations during the COVID pandemic, the MCA have taken the decision to retain this online format but change the structure to consist of the following two elements, as detailed in MIN 690:
- Part A – Online computer based examination, to be undertaken under examination conditions, and
- Part B – Online face-to-face MCA oral examination
The purpose of the Part A element is to assess appropriate topics of the oral examination syllabus and to give both the candidate and examiner confidence that the candidate has the knowledge required to undertake the Part B element.
Questions in both parts of the examination may be drawn from any part of the syllabus contained in MIN 653 – Amendment 1.
Please refer to MIN 690 for additional information on the associated processes, such as applying for an NoE/NoA, booking oral examinations, and post examination notifications.
