Professional Practices & Responsibilities – online - General
The PPR course is a mandatory course for all skippers seeking to commercially endorse for the first time and all existing skippers at their revalidation.
Being a Commercially Endorsed Skipper carries with it many responsibilities and a need to understand a wide variety or areas such as the kit and tests necessary on the vessel you are using, the crew you require and what your qualification allows you to do. Historically many Skippers failed to fully appreciate their responsibilities and to understand what they needed to do to manage their craft correctly and in line with the various legal requirements. In conjunction with the MCA the RYA created a course to address this gap in knowledge – the Professional Practices and Responsibilities online course.
Learn more about it here directly form the RYA’s Richard Falk –
In the run up to the course being launched there was a degree of misunderstanding on various websites and forums concerning the nature of the course and how beneficial it would be. Having undertaken the course ourselves we have been really impressed with the way that it is structured.
As a Commercial Skipper it is not expected that you know the answer to every question however you must have a good idea where to find the right answer and a good appreciation of the general rules surrounding what you do.
This is where the course really excels as what it does is creates scenarios (boats/skippers & jobs) and uses these to look at the issues and rules and show you where to find the right answers. These answers are to be found in the various supporting documents that have been built into the online course and directly replicate the information, manuals and forms you will find in the ‘real world’. In the assessment this approach is continued with most of the questions being based around scenarios where you need to use the information to answer the questions.
As a centre we consider that we are pretty knowledge about this subject and even so we were impressed with the things that we learnt when doing it. Many hundreds of skippers have now undertaken the course and time and time again they comment on how much they have learnt and perhaps more so how much they now realise that they didn’t know when they started.
Why choose Powerboat Training UK for your Professional Practices and Responsibilities course?
It may be that you have already worked or trained with us in some capacity in which case I would hope that our understanding of this sector has been apparent to you. If we haven’t had the chance to work with you before perhaps some background information about us would be beneficial.
We were founded about 10 years ago and have developed an expertise and understanding of the commercial sector which is very strong. We run our own coded RIBs and Motor Cruiser so fully understand the issues surrounding running coded craft and being commercial skippers.
As you may have seen elsewhere on the website, without exception our Instructors are highly experienced and are all Commercially Endorsed themselves. We run a considerable number of Yachtmaster and Advanced Powerboat courses and exams each year so fully understand the commercial sector in this regard.
If you find the course straightforward then that will be great, equally though if you find that you need assistance and need to chat with an instructor or meet over a coffee to discuss any element that you are finding tricky we will happily do so.
With regard to the PPR course itself we were one of the initial handful of schools asked by the RYA to review the draft course and exam and have worked with the RYA subsequently to assist in the development of the course. We have created a team of three dedicated instructors who will be available to assist you as you progress through the course. The team consists of:
Paul Glatzel: Paul is the Centre Principal and has a wide range of Commercial Experience and was involved in the pilot course. He is a RYA Yachtmaster Instructor (Commercially Endorsed – Power), a RYA Powerboat Trainer and a RYA Powerboat Examiner.
Nye Davies: Nye is a RYA Yachtmaster Instructor (Commercially Endorsed – Sail & Power) and a RYA Powerboat Trainer.
Paul Sargent: Paul is a RYA Yachtmaster Instructor (Commercially Endorsed – Power) and a RYA Advanced Powerboat Instructor.
Professional Practices & Responsibilities – online - The Course
Introduced in April 2012 the RYA Professional Practices and Responsibilities (‘PPR’) Course is an online course and assessment that is required by all those individuals seeking a Commercial Endorsement.
How long will it take?
As a guide we feel that it will take you between 4 and 8 hours to undertake the course. Where you sit in this rather wide range will depend on how conversant you are with the subject (For example if you own/run a coded boat this will inevitably help you) and how quickly you learn in an online environment. There is no rush with the course and the set up allows you to do a section, save where you are and log in again later. The assessment will take about 30 – 60 minutes. If you pass the assessment then you are immediately generated a PDF certificate for you to keep.
Do I need to undertake the course/exam in one ‘hit’?
No, once you are running with the course you save what you have done undertake it over a period of days or weeks.
If you need to revalidate your Commercial Endorsement it would make sense to start your PPR Course at least 4 weeks before your Endosrement expires to give you plenty of time to undertake the course and to send off the forms to the RYA.
What happens if I fail?
Of course this will happen from time to time however if you take your time with the course and make sure you don’t rush the modules you should be fine. If you do fail then in the first instance call us and we will allocate you an Instructor to discuss with the the issues that you had. We will work out a plan of action with you and help you towards a pass at your retake.
How much does it cost
£32.50 + VAT/£39 inc VAT. You pay us and we will set you up to take the course.
Can I pay for extra assistance from your Instructors through the course?
Yes you can. In the first instance we will provide telephone/email support to chat through any issues and will happily sit down with you in the Office over a coffee and discuss any elements that are more challenging. These chats are not charegable. If you want to spend longer with an Instructor we would charge at a per hour rate of £45 inc VAT.
Do I need the PPR if I am not intending working commercially but I am taking an RYA practical exam?
No. This is only necessary if you intend commercially endorsing the Certificate of Competence. You can go ahead and undertake the Exam without doing this.
I am not due to revalidate for two years – can I take the course now?
Yes – and it is actually a great idea to do so. As mentioned we felt we learn lots from the course and feel that any Skipper will. You can do the course and assessment and then use your certificate to revalidate your Commercial Endorsement when necessary.
I am over 65 and need to revalidate more often – do I need to do the course more frequently?
No, you will be treated the same as anyone else.
Are there any exemptions?
To quote from the RYA website “If you hold an MCA Certificate of Competence as Officer of the Watch, Master 200, Master 500 or above you do not need to take the PPR course. Please send a copy of your MCA certificate with your application or renewal form for your commercial endorsement.”
Okay, I would like to go ahead – what is the process?
Click on the ‘Book now’ tab and we’ll take you through the booking process.
Questions?
We are sure that you will have questions. Please feel free to give us a call or drop an email through and we will do our best to answer them. Alternatively if you want to pop in for a coffee and be shown around our classrooms and boats then just give us a call to arrange a time.
Professional Practices & Responsibilities – online - Book Now
Thank you for your interest in this course.
This is an online course so all you need to do is to select the version according to whether you are UK based or we need to send your pack overseas, you then pay and we will send your login details and instructions for taking the course and of course send you out your course pack. The logins will arrive the next business day as we need to manually set you up for this course.
We’re always really keen to chat to you when you’re booking a course as whilst we are happy to take bookings through this system for your convenience – nothing beats chatting about boats and courses!
Whilst this is an online course you will be prompted for a date, just leave the date it gives you as it doesn’t matter what date is selected. Select as many spaces as you need and then follow the booking process.
Purchase this course by selecting this button. (NOTE: To keep our booking system happy use today’s date for the course start and end date.)
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Emails…Once you have finished the process you will receive a variety of emails. If you do not get any then please check your spam folder and if there is nothing there then please let us know.
Your logon details and course pack…We will send you your logon details and also send out the course pack to you. If you are buying the version for overseas customers then obviously this pack may take a little while to get to you. You don’t need to wait for the pack though and can get cracking with the online course before the pack arrives.