Other news from STCW Training News Update 8:

• The duration of the training Crisis Management Human Behaviour has been adjusted to 1.5 days
• When will a foreign medical certificate be recognized by the Dutch flag?
• May an STCW-training certificate or a medical certificate expire during the voyage?

When do you need to refresh your MFA and MC certificates?

We often receive questions about the need to refresh training in Medical First Aid and Medical Care. To many seafarers, it is unclear when to refresh these trainings and when not. And this is not so strange.

In most cases, the requirement to refresh a training stems from the STCW code. This is the case with training in for example basic safety or advanced fire fighting. If you are required to be trained in these fields, you will always also be required to refresh your training every 5 years to keep your CoC valid.

However, the requirement to refresh medical training does not stem from the STCW code but from a directive from the European Union (EU regulation 92/29/EEG). This directive states that refresher training is required only for captains and for seafarers to whom medical tasks have been delegated on board.  We have adjusted our flowcharts to clarify this.

Other officers will need to supply a valid medical training certificate when they apply for their initial CoC, but they are not required by law to refresh it. Of course, refreshing can still be a ship owner’s internal policy.

Extensive information on training refreshment requirements can be found here.

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