Deck officer holiday

[aaron ballard]

Hi Everyone.
Just starting down the road towards the Deck Officer Cadetship, but annoyingly have to retake some gcse's to get in, on top of the degree I'm already doing. Such larks.
My question is this though:
From what I'm reading, and have been told on the RFA direct line, holidays (once qualified) work on a four months on, three off (roughly).
However, on the website seems to say that you get seven days of paid leave for every month at sea.
Asked the phone folks about it and they said that whatever is on the website will be the mst up to date information.
So.. what's the deal? Have the terms of employment recently changed or a, I missing something?
28 days off after four months at sea is obviously much less attractive then 82 days off- particularly as a bit part of the attraction of the role for me s the work/life balance afforded by prolonged periods off work.
Thoughts?

 

[ScottishSailor]

While you are a cadet/apprentice you do not get as much leave as when you are a qualified rating/officer.

 

[Seadog]

What SS is trying to say may be:

Cadets and Apprentices are on lower rates of leave than qualified officers and ratings.

 

[Dorling83]

You earn a weeks worth of earned voyage leave for each month you are away. Therefore 4 months on/1 month off, as a cadet.

However, your time off as a cadet is shaped just as equally by your time at college. For example, in my second sea phase I required 5 months sea time to reach my 12 months. I required a significant amount of watchkeeping days too.

The sea phase was from the beginning of Sep 16 to middle of May 17 - 9 months. I had 2 weeks off and then did a two month trip and left early because I wasn't getting enough watchkeeping days. I then had 1 week at home before going away for 4 months. At the end of those 4 months I had accrued 13 months sea time and fulfilled my requirements for watchkeeping days. That was on 7th March. I didn't have to be back at college until 16th May and didn't need to go to sea anymore. My training officer was in the process of leaving the job and handing over to the new one. As a result I was on leave until I got back to college, so I had 10 weeks off - it was the same for a few of the cadets in my phase.

In short; the intended structure for a 9 month sea phase is usually a week or so of leave, a 4 month trip, followed by a month of leave, then a 3 month trip followed by a couple of weeks off before going back to college. That's the intention. But watchkeeping days are a valuable commodity. Try to get as many as you can early on. If you are struggling, be prepared to go anywhere at a moments notice and sacrifice your leave in the second sea phase.

So you may get 1 week for every month away, you may not!

Don't let it deter you. I've had far more leave as a cadet than I ever would have received in my previous office job. At college you get 2/3 weeks for Christmas and Easter too.