The Merchant Navy Training Board (MNTB), part of the UK Chamber of Shipping, is proud to announce the release of the Careers at Sea documentary titled A Sea of Opportunities: The Making of a UK Merchant Navy Cadet. The documentary offers an exclusive sneak peek into cadet training both at sea and ashore in the UK.

Produced by students at Solent Creatives and filmed at South Shields Marine School and aboard Gardline Limited’s fleet of offshore survey vessels, the documentary takes viewers behind the scenes to witness how cadets undergo both theoretical education and practical training, gaining the necessary skills to embark on successful careers as officers at sea, as well as discussing important subjects like the role of women in maritime. 

The Careers at Sea documentary explores the essential balance between academic training at UK maritime colleges and the hands-on experience cadets receive while working aboard vessels, and has been created to provide greater access to the realities of training to those interested in starting their career at sea. 

MNTB Training and Careers Manager Susan Bell said:

We are excited to be diversifying our careers promotion formats and hope that this student-led project will engage officer cadets of the future. 

We are consistently hearing feedback from current cadets that they wish they had seen more about what Merchant Navy training entails, and what life in the shipboard environment is like before beginning their officer cadet training. We hope this film will help to address that need for future cadets and help us to reach more people with the message of how exciting and varied a career at sea can really be.

I'd like to thank the two students who created the documentary – Darcey and Luke – for all their hard work, time and effort, as well as South Shields Marine School, Gardline Limited and Adam from Solent Creatives for his continued guidance and expertise.

You can watch A Sea of Opportunities: The Making of a UK Merchant Navy Cadet on the Careers at Sea YouTube channel - available now.