KEY POINTS:
TRAINING PLACE
What: Seaman Officer with the Royal NZ Navy
Training: Devonport Naval Base
Contact: Phone 0800 NZ Navy, website www.navy.mil.nz
Intakes: January and July
Prerequisites: Top year 12 students, year 13 and graduates preferred. Strengths needed in maths, English and physics, level 2 and above.
Starting salary: Midshipman $21,600, rising to $34, 800 for Ensign. Everyone in the Navy has access to subsidised medical and dental treatment, subsidised meals, accommodation assistance, superannuation, gym, sporting teams and travel.
School and sports leaders make ideal naval officers. By excelling as head boys and girls, prefects or sports captains, they have demonstrated commitment and loyalty at a young age.
Naval ships are modern and powerful so seaman officers require sound judgment when giving orders. They have to be outgoing, strong leaders and proficient in mathematics, as their primary role is based around navigation and ship manoeuvres requiring calculations.
Recruits undergo six months of junior officer command training (JOCT), shaping them into a naval officer. The focus is on teamwork, leadership development, having fun and extending themselves through challenging activities.
Next they complete the bridge watch keeping (deck officer) grade three certificate (BWC 3) which enables them to control a vessel under supervision.
At this point, an officer will be posted to sea, to consolidate navigation and ship handling either around New Zealand waters or abroad. Other professional seaman officers' courses are mainly conducted offshore.
For those who excel in training, ties with allied navies enable exchange schemes, for instance with the Irish Navy, US Coast Guard and Singapore Navy. Professional development is enhanced and the officers enjoy an early OE.
Only seaman officers can experience command of a ship. This comes with many hours at sea.
The work is diverse and there are opportunities for promotion. Eventually the young officer will specialise in warfare, communications, diving, piloting and hydrographic surveying.
THE STUDENT
Sub-Lieutenant Fraser Toulim (22)
Seaman officer on Rotoiti, Royal NZ Navy
Graduated March 2005
I joined the Navy because I wanted to travel and I wanted a career that would challenge me mentally and physically.
When the recruiters came to school I thought seaman officer sounded like one of the most diverse and exciting jobs within the Navy. You can expect to be at sea for seven months a year for the first four or five years.
The job involves a lot of continuation training. You start with the basic grade three navigation and watchkeeping course and next they give you the chance to consolidate what you learnt at sea. Then it's back to the classroom for a more advanced course before being posted back to sea to try to gain a certificate in watchkeeping.
The Navy uses experienced people as mentors and instructors, who impart their experience to junior members. You won't qualify if they don't think you're ready and they won't keep you if they don't think you're the right person for the job.
It is encouraging that, although you have different instructors, through all the courses there is an underlying high standard.
My current posting is the Rotoiti, the first of the new inshore patrol vessels built in Whangarei for Project Protector. When the ship comes into commission in November, it will work with other government agencies such as Customs, Fisheries and Police.
As bridge watchkeeper on the Rotoiti, you are the captain's representative as he can't be on the bridge 24 hours a day. During each four-hour watch, you can expect to maintain safe navigation, launch and recover the ship's helicopter, deploy seaboats and boarding teams and conduct live weapons firing.
I joined the Navy in 2003, was posted to Te Mana in 2004 and was lucky enough to go to the Gulf in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. The second ship I was posted to was HMNZ Canterbury for six months and I was part of her decommissioning tour around New Zealand. Back to Te Mana and we travelled to Japan, China and Russia. We were the first New Zealand ship to visit Russia. Then in 2006, I was one of two personnel posted to Korea as part of the United Nations peacekeeping operations.
My aims? This latest job was one. The next step is to become the navigating officer of a major fleet unit. And then I aspire to being the commanding officer of one of our frigates.
THE EMPLOYER
Commander Garin Golding
Seaman officer career manager
Royal NZ Navy
Fraser was an ideal recruit to become a seaman officer as he was intelligent, self-motivated, and had good leadership and inter-personal skills.
His attention to detail and ability to assess and deal with situations in a calm, instinctive manner meant that, despite only being 22, he was well suited to operate a ship in close proximity to other ships and navigational dangers.
