Merchant Navy Courses After 10th: GP Rating & NCV Options Compared

If you’ve passed class 10 and don’t want to wait two more years to start a Merchant Navy career, you have two real course options: GP Rating and NCV Rating. Both get you to sea without a PCM requirement, both are significantly shorter and cheaper than any after-12th officer course, and both lead to a genuine, paying seafaring career. This page compares them directly so you can pick the right one before you enroll anywhere.

Not sure this is the right entry point for you at all? Read Merchant Navy Career After 10th first for the full picture of how this route compares to waiting for the officer track.

The Two Courses at a Glance

Both courses are delivered at DG Shipping-approved Maritime Training Institutes and cover overlapping ground — basic seamanship, safety training, and hands-on deck/engine-room familiarization — but differ in scope and depth, which is what drives the difference in where you’re qualified to sail afterward.

GP Rating: The Standard Route

GP Rating is the more widely chosen of the two, and for most 10th-pass aspirants, it’s the default recommendation — it qualifies you for international deep-sea vessels, which means access to foreign-flag ships and the stronger long-term earning and career-progression opportunities that come with a broader sailing scope. Full details on eligibility, syllabus, fees, and career growth are on our dedicated GP Rating Course page.

NCV Rating: The Faster, Coastal-Focused Alternative

NCV Rating trains you for vessels operating near the coast rather than international deep-sea routes — think coastal cargo vessels, offshore support vessels, and similar near-shore shipping. Training is generally shorter than GP Rating, and it can be a sensible choice if your priority is the fastest possible entry into paid seafaring work, or if coastal/domestic shipping specifically appeals to you (for instance, wanting shorter contract cycles closer to home rather than long international voyages).

The trade-off is scope: NCV Rating doesn’t open the door to the same range of international, foreign-flag opportunities that GP Rating does. If you’re aiming for the broadest possible long-term career, GP Rating is usually the stronger choice even though it takes slightly longer.

Eligibility (Applies to Both Courses)

• Education: Minimum class 10 pass. No specific subject or stream requirement.
• Age: Generally 17–25 years, varying slightly by institute.
• Medical fitness: DG Shipping’s standard medical criteria apply — vision (colour vision especially), hearing, and general physical fitness, with no significant disqualifying cardiac, respiratory, or similar conditions.
• Swimming: Basic swimming competency, either before joining or as part of early training.

Get a medical check-up with a DG Shipping-approved doctor before enrolling in either course — this catches disqualifying issues before you’ve spent any course fees. Full standards are on our Merchant Navy Eligibility Criteria page.

What You’ll Study

Both courses are built around STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping) basics:

• Basic seamanship — knots, rigging, mooring, anchoring, deck operations.
• Safety training — fire prevention and firefighting, personal survival techniques, first aid, and personal safety/social responsibility.
• Engine-room familiarization and basic workshop practice.
• Physical fitness training suited to shipboard demands.
• Simulator-based practice for ship-handling and safety scenarios.

GP Rating’s slightly longer duration generally means more depth across these areas and broader certification coverage than NCV Rating’s more compact program.

Fees

Both courses sit at the lower end of Merchant Navy course costs overall, well below any after-12th officer-track course. GP Rating tends to run somewhat higher than NCV Rating given its longer duration and broader certification scope, but exact figures vary meaningfully by institute — some bundle hostel, uniform, and exam fees into the quoted price, others don’t. See our Merchant Navy Course Fees page for a side-by-side comparison across institutes before enrolling anywhere, and always confirm DG Shipping approval status before comparing on price alone — a cheaper course from a non-approved institute won’t get you a valid CDC.

After the Course

Regardless of which you choose, two things stand between course completion and your first ship:

• CDC and INDoS number — mandatory identity and service-record documents. See our CDC guide for the process.
• Placement — through your institute’s placement cell or a licensed manning agency. Read how this works on our Merchant Navy Sponsorship page. Worth noting: GP Rating graduates generally have access to a wider pool of placement opportunities than NCV graduates, given the broader international sailing scope.

What You’ll Earn

Entry-level pay for both routes compares well against typical fresher jobs available to a 10th or 12th-pass candidate in India, with GP Rating generally offering the stronger long-term earning trajectory given its access to international, foreign-flag vessels. See exact current figures on our GP Rating Salary page and the full rank-wise comparison on Merchant Navy Ranks and Salary.

Which One Should You Choose?

For most aspirants, GP Rating is the stronger default choice — the extra training time buys you meaningfully broader long-term opportunity, including the international, foreign-currency-earning roles that make this career attractive in the first place.