It is unlikely that there will be a rush by administrations to issue
alternative certificates in the near future, but it is important that institutions are
aware of the implications. The purpose of alternative certification is to allow the
functions associated with the total operation of the ship to be allocated to the ship's
personnel in such a way as to make best use of their skills and presence. The standards of
competency required are exactly the same as for traditional certificates, the functions
and levels of responsibility being as set out in Chapters II, III and IV, with
administrations still needing to approve the programs of education and training.
Institutions may decide to modularise their courses by offering programs in accordance
with the functional structure in the Code A tables, a not too difficult task and offering
greater flexibility to customers. The following figure 4 illustrates the possibilities.
Figure
4: The Functional Approach
A number of safeguards were agreed to, to ensure that Chapter VII was
not used in itself to reduce crew numbers, lower the integrity of the profession or
de-skill seafarers, or justify the assignment of combined engine and deck watchkeeping
duties to one certificate holder.
7. EXAMINATION AND ASSESSMENT OF EVIDENCE
In the tables of competency, column 3 specifies the methods that may be
used to demonstrate competence. It should be noted that in most cases the reference is to
examination AND assessment of evidence from APPROVED training and experience using one or
more of a number of methods such as approved sea-service, simulator training, laboratory
equipment training, workshop training, practical experience and tests, and training ship
experience. The validity and value of such evidence
