And just out of interest Falklan, why is it that us brits have to jump through so many hoops and the yanks don't?
What is the history/intel behind that?
What a million dollar question.
It's all about competition. As companies grew and flag countries evolved and people started looking closer at the issue came a need for compliance.
Also a lot of CSO's for the clients are x-admirals or whatever from the UK. they know the HSE system of compliancy and due diligence. If you find an american CSO then he knows his system and doesn't care for all these city and guilds, edxcel things.
So if you look back to PVI's early days it was only lads doing it with no certs or experience, just had to be x-military and relatively switched on. then as competition grew they started bidding on the contracts.
The guys at solace were born from pvi and when they departed, they took the MSC contract. One of the options was they could offer more for less. After all, its of no cost to the company to make lads do these courses. Then PVI wanted to compete and needed the same and now we have the issue at hand.
This is systemic with english/england. This never ending requirement to be certified or registered or trained at so many things. Even in Iraq or Afghan the brits need mira and sia where the americans don't. Where they win is the secret clearences and the experience in country usually. Brit will do tours but some americans have got years and years in these conflict zones.
The new MSO policy was written by training providers. You have a vicious cycle of costs and expectation brought on by the industry. For some companies, their profit is in training. They bid SO low to get the contract, sometimes running a loss, just to make big profit on courses.
The biggest player in american maritime security have that market locked down. Only former seals and you have to know the right guys to get in. And they work on US flagged vessels. And for americans, they don't care about compliance, they want their seals and they want their guns and thats all that matters.
And then ofcourse you have cheap labour flooding the market from eastern europe and asia who don't have anywhere near the certificates. But on competitive bidding all that matters is the TL, who is in charge, what are his credentials and what is his worth.
When companies open tender for contracts you will find all sorts of bids, gurkhas, fillipino commandos and it's all about the price package. GoAgt have a model of this pricing program on their website.
If for example, a shooting company consult that compliance with section 5 license on UK flag ships require forensic accounting after a shooting incident, then you will find yourself having to attend this extra course. Now the company you're on the books for can claim section 5 compliance even though no one from the home office or MET is going to come on board to investigate the shooting. So the competing companies realise this is a room where they fall short and then 3RG swoop in with some city and guilds course for just this reason. few months go by its industry wide, written in guardcon, home office adapt it for uk vessels and the operator pays the tab.
Just one example.
However, it should be shifting now as the international piracy issue is becoming less UK focused. But then a greek company will hire greeks, so and so forth so you're market share has been reduced and expectations are higher.
The competition is so high at the UK level that there is no end to list of credentials. A uk company will use these credentials to justify cost where a german company can supply guys at a fraction and show shipping companies that their armed guards don't need all that crap that the uk market hyped up.
It's a perfect example of market sare economics. Mcdonalds and burger king working across the road from each other. One day mcdonalds raises its sign so more people can see it, the next day burger king raises theirs. Every day their signs get higher and higher and each day the shop with the highest sign wins. This goes on for weeks until one day a small hotdog vendor opens on the street and takes everyones business. The reason being is the signs got so high no one could see them anymore and the market was ready for a cheap, simple alternative.
And the market is ready for that cheap and simple alternative while you see the UK companies are still raising their sign.