GP Rating Course: Eligibility, Fees, Duration & Salary

The GP Rating (General Purpose Rating) course is the fastest, most accessible entry point into the Merchant Navy — open to anyone who’s passed class 10, with no PCM requirement, no long wait for a degree, and training that can have you on a ship within a year. This page covers everything about the course itself: what you’ll actually study, who qualifies, what it costs, which institutes are worth considering, and what you can expect to earn once you’re placed.

New to this route entirely? Read Merchant Navy Career After 10th first for the full picture of where this course fits in your career.

What Is the GP Rating Course?

GP Rating trains you to work as general crew across a ship’s deck and engine departments — not as a specialized navigator or engineer, but as the crew that keeps day-to-day shipboard operations running: mooring and anchoring operations, cargo handling support, routine maintenance, engine-room assistance, watchkeeping support, and general seamanship. Every commercial vessel carries GP Ratings, which is why demand for this role stays consistent regardless of which sector of shipping is booming at a given time.

The course itself is a pre-sea training program delivered at a DG Shipping-approved Maritime Training Institute (MTI), combining classroom instruction, hands-on workshop training, and simulator-based practice, followed by mandatory safety certifications.

Eligibility

• Education: Minimum class 10 pass. No specific stream or subject requirement — Science, Commerce, and Arts students all qualify equally.
• Age: Generally 17–25 years, though this can vary slightly by institute — check the specific admission notification you’re applying to.
• Medical fitness: You must meet DG Shipping’s medical standards — reasonable vision (colour vision in particular is checked closely), functional hearing, and general physical fitness, with no significant cardiac, respiratory, or similar disqualifying conditions.
• Swimming: Basic swimming competency is expected, either before joining or as an early part of training at most institutes.
• Physical fitness: A baseline level of general fitness is assessed, since the work involves physically demanding tasks in a moving, sometimes cramped environment.

Get a medical check-up with a DG Shipping-approved doctor before you enroll — this is the step that catches disqualifying issues early, before you’ve paid course fees. Full detailed standards (exact vision benchmarks, disqualifying conditions, etc.) are on our Merchant Navy Eligibility Criteria page.

What You’ll Study

GP Rating courses are structured around STCW (Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping) requirements and typically cover:

• Basic seamanship: Knots, rigging, mooring, anchoring, and general deck operations.
• Safety training: Fire prevention and firefighting, personal survival techniques, elementary first aid, and personal safety and social responsibility — collectively known as STCW basic safety training, mandatory for anyone sailing on an international vessel.
• Engine-room familiarization: Basic understanding of engine-room systems and safe working practices, even for candidates leaning toward deck-side work, since GP Ratings are expected to be genuinely general-purpose.
• Workshop and practical training: Hands-on time with tools, equipment, and shipboard machinery under supervision.
• Physical training: Fitness conditioning to prepare for the physical demands of shipboard work.
• Simulator sessions: Time in ship-handling and safety simulators to build familiarity before ever stepping on an actual vessel.

Duration

Most GP Rating courses run 6 months to 1 year, making this one of the shortest routes to a paying seafaring career available in India. Some institutes offer accelerated formats closer to 6 months, while others run a fuller year-long program with more extensive practical and workshop components — a longer, more thorough program isn’t necessarily worse, so weigh curriculum depth alongside speed when comparing institutes.

Fees

GP Rating course fees are significantly lower than officer-track courses (DNS, GME, B.Tech Marine Engineering), which is part of what makes this route accessible. As a general range, expect fees to fall roughly in the ₹1 lakh to ₹3 lakh bracket depending on the institute, course duration, and whether hostel/accommodation is included — premium institutes with stronger placement records and better infrastructure tend to sit at the higher end of that range, while more basic programs sit lower.

A few things worth checking before comparing fees across institutes:

• What’s actually included — some quoted fees cover only tuition, with hostel, uniform, medical exams, and exam fees charged separately; others bundle everything.
• Placement fees or bonds — some institutes or their partner shipping companies attach a service bond in exchange for placement support; read this carefully before enrolling.
• DG Shipping approval status — never enroll based on fees alone without confirming the institute is DG Shipping-approved. A cheaper course from a non-approved institute won’t get you a valid CDC, making the fee irrelevant.

Compare fee structures, placement records, and infrastructure across specific institutes on our Merchant Navy Colleges in India directory.

After the Course: Documents and Placement

Completing GP Rating training isn’t the finish line — two more steps stand between you and your first ship:

• CDC and INDoS number: Mandatory identity and service-record documents processed through your institute or the DG Shipping portal. See our CDC guide for the exact process.
• Placement: Through your institute’s placement cell or a licensed manning agency. Read how sponsorship and placement actually work, including realistic timelines and contract red flags to watch for, on our Merchant Navy Sponsorship page.

Salary After GP Rating

This is usually the deciding factor for aspirants comparing GP Rating against waiting two more years for the officer track, so it’s worth being specific.

Entry-level GP Rating pay compares favorably against most fresher jobs open to a 10th or 12th-pass candidate in India, with the added advantage of foreign-currency earnings on international routes — a meaningful premium over an equivalent shore-based entry job. Pay increases with experience, additional certifications, and progression to senior rating positions such as Able Seaman, Petty Officer, or Bosun.

For exact current figures broken down by experience level and rank, see our dedicated GP Rating Salary page, and the full industry-wide rank comparison on Merchant Navy Ranks and Salary.

Career Growth After GP Rating

A GP Rating career has a real, respected progression of its own:

• Ordinary Seaman → Able Seaman → Petty Officer/Bosun on the deck side, with increasing responsibility and pay at each stage.
• Equivalent progression exists on the engine-room side through senior rating positions.
• Officer conversion: With additional qualifying courses, sea service, and Certificate of Competency exams, some ratings do transition into officer ranks later — a genuine path, though one that requires deliberate extra effort rather than happening automatically with time served. If becoming an officer is your firm long-term goal, weigh whether starting directly on the after-12th officer track might be the more efficient route — see Merchant Navy Career After 12th for that comparison.