The American door in: USCG and MCA tickets under one roof, which is the whole question if you don't yet know which side of the Atlantic your working life happens on.
This trade has no single birthplace, but its rulebook has a birthday. On 7 July 1978 governments meeting at what is now the International Maritime Organization adopted the STCW Convention, the first to set basic requirements for the training, certification and watchkeeping of seafarers on an international level. It came into force on 28 April 1984, was overhauled in 1995 and brought up to date at Manila in 2010. Its basic training has four parts: personal survival techniques, fire prevention and firefighting, elementary first aid, and personal safety and social responsibilities. Today one of the trade’s busiest hubs is Antibes, home of the Professional Yachting Association, run by yachting professionals since 1991, which gave its membership as 11,518 at the start of 2026.
Learn with USCG and MCA tickets under one roof, if you don't yet know which side of the Atlantic you'll work.
One school, and it is the American door: USCG and MCA tickets under one roof. For company that means a classroom of people choosing the same side of the Atlantic as you. The record holds no harbour body, no calendar and no count — nothing outside the school itself.
Living sceneVerified schoolsGold credentialRunning since 1983 at 1915 South Andrews Avenue, with over 175 deck and engine courses approved by the USCG, the MCA, DNV or the Nautical Institute.
Facts read on the school's own pages, 17 Sep 2026.
STCW Basic Safety Training — four modules, MCA-approved · Certifying body: MCA (Maritime & Coastguard Agency), under the IMO STCW Convention
There is a real difference between a school that teaches you and a good-looking website, and too much of the internet is the second kind. Four instruments do the work, and every one of them is visible on the page you are already on.
If a place dodges these, that's your answer. It costs you nothing to ask, and it tells you everything.
This is the short version. The full method is here — the six questions, in order, for any craft anywhere.