TAR Book-Entries.
In accordance to STCW 95 Section A � III/1 and Merchant Shipping (Standards of Training Certification and Watchkeeping for Seafarers), Rules 1998 Volume-I Rules 21(III) and Section M-III/9 para 1.3, every candidate for certification as Officer In-charge of an engine room watch of ships shall follow an approved programme of �on-board� training closely supervised and monitored by qualified and certificated Engineer Officer. His training details shall be adequately documented in a Training and Assessment Record (TAR) book.
The TAR book is required to be duly endorsed by the Chief Engineer Officer/2nd Engineer Officer on ships, certifying skills and proficiencies attained by the candidate during his sea-going service and is required to be submitted as a documentary evidence for eligibility to sit for MEO Class IV Examination.
It has been observed that some Examiners in their assessment of candidates have declared few of them ineligible for appearing for MEO Class IV Part B Examination due to some portions of candidates TAR Book found incomplete, even though these candidates had maintained a diary along with the project work assigned by the Chief Engineer/Company covering various topics relevant to their training. The purpose of the scrutiny of the TAR book by the Examiner is to verify the training imparted by the Chief Engineer/2nd Engineer on board ship, and as a record of training received by the candidate during his mandatory sea service of 6 months.
It must be appreciated that the TAR books (Pre Sea & during Sea Service), sea service certificates, entries in CDC, preparatory, simulator and STCW Courses certificates constitute a �portfolio of evidence� that the candidate has received during the mandatory education and training to be eligible for MEO Class IV CoC exam.
Depending on the type and size of ship, the endorsement in the TAR book of candidates may vary and, in fact, is most cases may not be completed in all respects within the 6 or 8 months that the candidates serves on a ship prior to his MEO Class IV examination. Hence, Examiners are expected to keep this in mind when scrutinizing TAR books.
In view of above, Chief Examiner of Engineers has directed that:
i) In case the TAR Book is not completed in all respect, the Examiner of Engineers should process the case for assessment by looking at the entire �portfolio of evidence� before making the candidate ineligible.
ii) Complete filling of the TAR Book should not be a prerequisite for eligibility of the candidate. There may be cases where the Chief Engineer / 2nd Engineer were not able to impart training on certain aspects during the period, the candidate was on board the ship.
iii) If the TAR Book of a candidate is not adequately completed or duly endorsed or completed in a irresponsible manner, the TAR book along with all relevant papers may be put up to Examiner of Engineer for deciding appropriately.
This issues with the approval of Chief Examiner of Engineers.
