Skipper's ticket
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Recreational Skippers Ticket is the name chosen for the Western Australian equivalent of a Boat Drivers Licence.
Who Needs a Skippers Ticket
- A Skippers Ticket is needed to skipper a vessel with a propulsion system over 6hp.
- You must be over 14 to get a Skippers Ticket. Skippers between 14 and 16 can only operate during daylight hours and under 8kn.
How to get a Skippers Ticket
- Boat Schools that are Authorised by the Government have Assessors who are the only ones can Assess for the Skippers Ticket.
- Boat Schools and their Assessors vary from part time weekenders who just do assessments (for a fee) to fully qualified professionals who train and assist as well as assess, 7 days a week - often for the same fee.
- People who have a valid Boat Drivers Licence or other qualification from interstate or internationally can get a W.A. Skippers Ticket by showing this to an assessor, filling in some forms and paying a small administration fee at most Boat Schools.
Skippers Ticket Courses
There are mainly Three methods the Boat Schools use to train and assess.
- Full day or weekend courses. Theory and Practical are read to you out of the free Workbook and explained very slowly over the time of the course.
- Evening Classroom Theory plus some Practical, then more practical and assessment on a boat at a later date
- Fast Track, where you read the Workbook at home, book a day and time to do it, then meet an assessor at the boat ramp and do the theory test (a simple 30 multiple choice questionnaire) right there, then get in the boat and be coached through the Practical until you are at a standard that will ensure you pass. Then when you are ready, you do the assessment.
Authorised Providers
Boat Schools must be Registered Training Organisations to do the Skippers Ticket.
There are not many of these, however the largest of these are Challenger TAFE, YA and Perth Boat School.
Many operators can be found in a Google search using 'Skippers Ticket' and the name of the location you are in. (eg skippers ticket perth, or skippers ticket hillarys, skippers ticket mandurah etc), however most of these are not Authorised Providers and just work under the umbrella of one of the abovementioned three.
The only way to be sure you will get a Skippers Ticket trainer and assessor who can actually assist you properly, who can train you quickly and efficiently to the requisite standard, then properly assess you and give you a Skippers Ticket on the spot, is to book with a professional Boat School that is not 'authorised by' anybody else. The professionals will not be 'approved by' or 'authorised by' TAFE or any other of the above and will be top level 'Authorised Providers' in their own right. They are audited and checked and have training, refunds policies, insurance and regular audits that backyard and part time non Approved assessors dont have.
The Department of Transport also has a list of Authorised Providers, which lists Skippers Ticket Authorised Providers not according to their ability, experience, location, or actual provision of the services, but rather alphabetically. As a result there is a two page list that is fairly useless as many people cannot find assessors from the list as the top ones on the list primarily train other things, whether it be office work or front end loader operators, wheelbarrow and cement mixers during the week and occasionally now and then they do Skippers Tickets for some weekend cash.
Only an online search will find the best Boat Schools, but be aware, anyone who says they are 'approved by' one of the above 3, is not a professional Registered Training Organisation, generally just a rubber stamped part times.