Chapter VII - Alternative Certification
What Chapter VII permits
Alternative certification lets an Administration issue function-based certificates instead of the traditional rank ladder of Chapters II and III. Instead of "second officer", the certificate states the functional areas the holder may work in - for example navigation, cargo handling and stowage, ship operation and care for persons on board, marine engineering, maintenance and repair, or electrical and electronic engineering.
The conditions
- Competence must be at least equivalent to the standards of Part A.
- The certificate must state the functions and the capacity in which the holder may serve.
- The holder may not serve outside those functions or above the level certified.
- All other obligations survive: medical fitness, basic safety training, watchkeeping fitness, and the radio requirements of Chapter IV are unaffected.
- The Administration must communicate the arrangement to IMO and maintain quality standards (I/8).
Traps
- Assuming alternative certification is a lower standard. It is a differently shaped route to the same competence.
- Assuming a functionally certified engineer can stand a navigational watch, or vice versa. The functional limits are strict.
- Assuming Chapter VII replaces basic safety training. It does not; VI/1 still applies to everyone.
- Assuming it covers radiocommunication personnel - GMDSS certification stays with Chapter IV.
Worked example
An Administration issues a certificate stating the holder may serve as "officer in charge of an engineering watch in motor ships up to 3 000 kW, within the function marine engineering at the operational level". The holder is offered a navigational watchkeeping post on the same ship. He must decline: the function and the power limitation are binding, and a master who assigns him is in breach.
Rule of thumb: read an alternative certificate as a permission list - if the function is not written on it, it is not held.