Volunteer training
Online courses
All sea staff must hold valid certifcates in Safeguarding and Food Hygiene, and the Safeguarding qualification must be updated every three years.
If you already hold qualifications in either of these disciplines, please just send us copies, scans or photos of the certificates, making sure the qualification name, issuing body, date of issue and your name are all clearly legible. You can send them to us by post or as email attachments. The Safeguarding qualification must have been completed in the last three years and once the 3-year period is up, you will need to renew the qualification before sailing with us again.
If you don’t already have these qualifications, our industry body ASTO (the Association of Sail Training Organisations) can offer access to an online learning platform (TES/EduCare) where you can take them. Both courses are completely modular and online, meaning you can do them in your own time, and at a speed that works for you.
You can purchase a subsidised subscription to TES/EduCare through ASTO. Access costs £20 and lasts for a set period – when you sign up you will be told when your access will expire and you must complete all courses by then.
Your subscription also includes access to a wide range of other qualifications relevant to working with young people in a sports or leisure environment, at no further cost – we would encourage you to complete other courses if you can.
However, regardless of other courses you may choose to complete, you MUST complete both Safeguarding and Food Hygiene qualifications before your first voyage with us in a sea staff berth. We ask that you complete them at least 6 weeks before your first voyage, so that we can avoid any last-minute worries over your availability, or a panic attempting to find a replacement for you if you haven’t managed to get the certificates completed in time. Returning sea staff will receive a reminder when they are due to update a safeguarding qualification.
To subscribe, click here and scroll down until you see this:
Select the option ‘ASTO members only price £22.00 GBP’ in the upper box and enter ‘Ocean Youth Trust South’ in the lower box.
Then click the yellow PayPal button to make payment. (You do not need a PayPal account to do this; you can pay via PayPal using any credit or debit card).
ASTO will open an account for you with TES/EduCare. The login details will be emailed to you direct from TES/EduCare.
Please note that ASTO do not operate during the weekend so any payments made between Friday afternoon and Monday morning will not be processed until the Monday morning at the earliest.
The names of the courses you need to complete for OYT South are:
- Safeguarding Young People.
- Food Hygiene Level 2
Please make sure to download the digital certificates from the TES/EduCare site once you have completed them. You must forward them to us at SeaStaffAdmin@oytsouth.org so we can register them on your sea staff profile.
Please email us if you have questions about your Safeguarding or Food Hygiene qualifications.
Because these certificates are not unique to OYT South or to sail training, you may find they are accepted for other activities you may be doing.