National Certificate in Seafood - Level 3

By PHILIPPA STEVENSON

If students can't get to Tauranga for the Bay of Plenty Polytechnic's National Certificate in Seafood the course can be taken to them.

Fifteen students who live on the East Coast's Mahia Peninsula are studying the 18-week programme, which is more usually offered on the polytech's Tauranga campus.

Students attend the course full time, putting in 24 hours' classroom work and 10 hours' private study each week. The programme also includes two weeks' work experience.

The course covers practical skills needed in the seafood industry, including wire splicing, net mending, knots and lashings, fish handling and fishing techniques, boat handling, survival at sea, and fire fighting.

The theory studied includes navigation and seamanship, and seafood practices and techniques. Students can also gain a restricted radio operator's certificate.

The work experience undertaken by students gives a good introduction to the seafood industry and prospective employers. Up to 85 per cent of former course graduates find jobs once they have completed their studies.

Student proficiency is assessed for unit standards by a combination of oral and written work as well as practical exercises.

The internationally recognised national certificate is regarded as an important stepping stone to the seafood industry, and graduating students get a three-month remission on their sea service, which reduces the time it then takes them to obtain a skipper's ticket.

A host of study options are open to graduates but the most common one chosen is the two-year Diploma in Marine Studies.

The course is open to anyone over 15 and costs $997. Some scholarships are also available.

The next course begins on July 19. Applications are preferred by early July but will be accepted until the start date.

Graduates find work in the fishing industry ranging from being a deckhand on fishing vessels to seafood factory hands or jobs on tourist charter boats.

What students think

Logan Tuimaseve, 25

Deckhand

Tauranga

Graduate 2004


Last year I was doing the Diploma of Sport and Recreation but I decided it wasn't really me. I happened to pop into Maritime Studies.

I love being on the ocean. I got an application, filled it out, had an interview and it was all looking good. I've only been on a boat twice before, for recreational fishing.

Most of my time on the ocean has been because of surfing. With this course I could see a job at the end. I have two kids.

On the course we did basic stuff like knots, net mending - a lot of practical, hands-on stuff - and we learned about teamwork, which is important, especially in the fishing industry.

Eighteen students started the course, including three women, and 10 finished it and have jobs, including me. We had six job offers in one day. It's a primo course. There's a good atmosphere, good tutors and getting a job at the end sort of stokes me.

You're not just stuck with one style of fishing. You can do crayfishing, trawler or longline. You are multiskilled. And it's a worldwide industry. If my wife is willing we'll have the option to travel overseas.

What employers think

Gary London

Cray fisherman

Tauranga


I didn't know about the course but I wanted a decky and I took him on because I figured if he was doing the polytech course he'd know something.

National Certificate in Seafood - Level 3

Bay of Plenty Polytechnic

Tauranga

Ph: 0800 Boppoly (2677659)

Earnings: Starting salaries range between $30,000 and $35,000 a year.