Katrina when we spoke had just graduated and was understandably extremely pleased with her achievement. She is starting her career with P&O Ferries.

Looking back, Katrina’s interest in the Merchant Navy was partly inspired by her experience as a sailing instructor with the Sea Scouts.

“That got me into the water and led me into work experience in my local port in Shoreham. I was given the opportunity to go on board ship bridges, and to drive tugboats because I had my powerboat qualification from my sailing instructing which was all quite exciting. “

“And when I went to visit the Marine Building at Portsmouth University I spoke to some of the people that were doing the course that I have done now. And they were telling me about all of the different places they are sailing to and the fact that they are getting paid whilst they are doing their degree through sponsorship. So I applied and here I am four years later ready to start my career in the Merchant Navy!”

Katrina’s sponsor was P&O Ferries and it is with P&O that she is starting her career in the Merchant Navy as a Deck Officer.

“The lecturers at Plymouth University were very supportive and were really dedicated helping with my dissertation for which I chose a subject that was very different – machine learning in the maritime industry.”

“And a lot of assignments are group projects which meant you worked closely with other students. For me this included a group of people who had come from the navy in Saudi Arabia. It was really interesting learning about their navy and their cultures as well. And the groups change over time which means you get to know new people throughout the course, which is really interesting.”

Her sea-time working experience included nine-months at sea where she was working three weeks on and one week off on the ferries. And the qualified crews are really supportive.

“The officers had also been deck cadets in their time and through their own experiences they can tell you exactly what you need to do to succeed in the industry and to do well at your exams.  They also help you through your Training Record and give you experience in bunkering and towing operations, something that you don’t see everyday.

“SSTG came along to the P&O headquarters in Dover for meetings with us to look through our training activity to make sure we’d not missed anything And they’d keep in touch with the training officer on the ship as well to get updates on our progress to make sure we don’t fall behind. And if you have any questions you can email them directly which is very useful. And of course there are also good contacts within P&O as well.”

“Initially I thought that working on ferries would be quite monotonous but actually it is far from it. Crossing the busiest shipping lane five times a day rather than being just in the middle of the Atlantic for two weeks makes you a lot more aware of different situations that are occurring and you are always practising your collision regulations. There is always something happening – it’s never a dull day!”