Malaysian Certificate of Competency (CoC)

Do you know that working onboard merchant ship/vessel requires you to have a certificate?

What is this CoC?

Do you have a Malaysian Passport & Driving license? Generally those who have not seen this Certificate of Competency, it is like a combination of Malaysian Passport and driving license. From outside it look similar like a passport and inside has the particulars like license.

Inside it contains information about the holder, grade, date of issue, date of expiry, issuing authority, signature of holder, signature of Director General of Marine, function, limitation, capacity, page for endorsement, etc...

Why do i say same like driving license? well for those who does not have any idea... CoC issued by the Marine Department Malaysia consist of different grades, capacities, plying limits and functions.

Take for example, at the back page of driving license it has classes of license such as A, B, B1, B2, C, D, E, E1, E2, F, G, H, and I. Similar to that, CoC has different grades like Master, Chief Officer, Officer in Charge of Navigation Watch (WKO), Chief Engineer, Second Engineer, Officer incharge of Engineering Watch (WKE). It also divided into Gross Tonage (GT) and Kilowatt (kW) and plying limit or voyage such as Domestic, Near Coastal and Unlimited.

Who is eligible for this CoC?
- Are you Malaysian? if yes, than you are eligible to have one.

How to get one?
- Getting it is not an easy task. The higher the CoC grades you are taking the harder it will be.

If you interested to have one, and seriously decided to be a seafarer as your career this what you should do;- Make an application to enroll in courses provided by the Approved Maritime Training Institution. For those who have good results in SPM, STPM, Matrikulasi, Diploma or even Degree... can make an application to Akademi Laut Malaysia (Navigation & Engineering) or Politeknik Ungku Omar (Engineering only).

For more information you might want to surf their webpage on below URL;
ALAM - http://www.alam.edu.my/
PUO - http://www.puo.edu.my/

The two institutions suggested above obviously provide courses for higher grade, i.e;
Navigation or Deck Department courses :
1. WKO >500GT Unlimited
2. Chief Officer >3000GT Unlimted
3. Master >3000GT Unimited

Engineering or Engine Department courses
1. WKE >750kW Unlimited
2. Second Engineer >3000kW Unlimited
3. Chief Engineer >3000kW Unlimited

There are also courses provided for lower grade, but that will be share later.

For those reading this article, you may drop me an comment below... i will try my best to provide you information base on my search online.