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STCW Personal Survival Techniques (PST)
The STCW Personal Survival Techniques course (PST) equips students with the techniques needed to protect themselves, and survive during emergency situations at sea and is mandatory for anyone wishing to work on a commercial vessel over 24 metres.Â
Covering everything from potential causes of distress through to how to safely abandon ship, this PST course is a combination of classroom based and practical training. Students will need to be water-confident as they will spend their practical session in the water, learning how to correctly wear life-jackets, safely abandon ship, use a survival suit and inflatable raft, all in a swimming pool.
Course Content
Theory
- Types of emergency situations such as collision, fire, sinking
- Types of life-saving appliances normally carried on ships
- Equipment in survival craft
- Location of personal life-saving appliances
- Principles concerning survival
Practical Pool Session
- Donning a life jacket
- Donning and use of an immersion suit
- Safely jumping from a height into the water
- Righting an inverted life raft while wearing a life jacket
- Swimming while wearing a life jacket
- Keeping afloat
- Boarding a life raft from both a ship and the water while wearing a life jacket
- Taking initial actions on boarding a life raft to enhance chance of survival
- Streaming a drogue or sea anchor
- Operating location devices, including radio equipment
What our customers say
The instructors were amazing, and it was a great course. I’ll be back!
Jacobus, STCW Personal Survival Techniques - March 2026
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