STCW 2010 Manila Amendments in Plain English: 7 Endorsements + What Changed

A captain I know walked into Singapore last spring with what he thought was a current STCW credential. Port State Control pulled his MMC, ran the endorsement dates, and parked the vessel pierside for 36 hours while the operator chartered a same-day refresher course in Houston and faxed the certificate to the agent. His STCW 95 endorsements had never been transitioned to the 2010 Manila standard. The cert wasn't expired in his eyes — but in Singapore's eyes, it had stopped existing in 2017.

STCW 2010 isn't just paperwork. It's port-state-control material, and the inspectors know it better than most US officers do.

Why this matters

• Port State Control inspects STCW certs first on foreign-flagged calls. Wrong endorsement, wrong date, wrong format — your ship gets detained until you fix it.
• Many US officers still hold STCW 95 endorsements that either expired or were never properly transitioned to Manila. The MMC card looks fine. The endorsements behind it don't hold up at a foreign port.
• The 5-year refresher requirement is real and frequently missed. Your MMC is on a different renewal cycle than your STCW endorsements. Renewing one does not renew the other.

What changed in 2010

The Manila amendments to the STCW Convention were adopted at a diplomatic conference in the Philippines in June 2010 and took effect January 1, 2012, with a five-year transition window ending January 1, 2017. The IMO's official STCW page walks through the convention text. Here's what it actually changed in practice:

• The older multi-cert system (STCW 95 used roughly 13 separate certificates and endorsements depending on route, vessel type, and rank) was consolidated into 7 mandatory baseline endorsements plus tiered officer endorsements.
• Refresher training every 5 years was made explicit for the survival, fire fighting, and medical endorsements — no more "I took it in 1998, I'm good."
• New officer-tier requirements showed up: ECDIS, Bridge Resource Management (BRM), Engine Resource Management (ERM), and Leadership and Managerial Skills.
• The amendments cross-reference the ISM Code, and through it, eventually the IMO Maritime Cyber Risk Management resolution (MSC.428(98)) — which is now its own US-flag rule under 46 CFR 101 Subpart F.

The USCG implemented Manila domestically through 46 CFR Part 11 (national and STCW endorsements) and 46 CFR Part 12 (basic safety training). The USCG National Maritime Center is the single source of truth for US-flag transition rules and Regional Exam Center scheduling.

The 7 mandatory baseline endorsements

Every officer and rating who serves on a vessel on international voyages — and most US officers operating "near coastal" or "ocean" routes — needs these seven. They're sometimes packaged as "Basic Training" plus three "Advanced" modules.

1. Personal Survival Techniques (PST) — STCW Code A-VI/1-1. Abandon ship, immersion suits, life raft entry, hypothermia survival. The course is roughly 1.5 days. Refresher required every 5 years.

2. Fire Prevention & Fire Fighting (FF) — STCW A-VI/1-2. Onboard firefighting basics: extinguishers, breathing apparatus, fire teams, smoke navigation. About 2.5 days. Refresher every 5 years.

3. Elementary First Aid (EFA) — STCW A-VI/1-3. CPR, bleeding control, shock management, casualty handling. Half-day to a day. No standalone refresher, but rolls into the medical endorsements below.

4. Personal Safety & Social Responsibility (PSSR) — STCW A-VI/1-4. Shipboard organization, contracts of employment, fatigue management, harassment policy, environmental awareness. Half-day. One-time, no refresher.

5. Proficiency in Survival Craft & Rescue Boats (PSC&RB) — STCW A-VI/2-1. Davit-launched lifeboats, fast rescue boats, on-water drills. About 4-5 days. Refresher every 5 years — this is the one that catches people.

6. Advanced Fire Fighting (AFF) — STCW A-VI/3. Fire team leadership, fire-fighting tactics, post-fire investigation. About 4 days. Refresher every 5 years.

7. Medical First Aid (MFA) — STCW A-VI/4-1. Stretchers, fractures, oxygen administration, telemedical advice. 4 days. Refresher every 5 years for officers in charge of medical care.

That's the floor. Every rating and officer working internationally needs all seven.

What actually changed about refreshers

Pre-Manila, you could plausibly argue that your 1995 PST course still counted because the convention didn't explicitly say otherwise. Post-Manila, the regulation is unambiguous: refresher training every 5 years for PSC&RB, AFF, and MFA. PST and FF refreshers are also required under most flag states' implementations of A-VI/1.

In the US, 46 CFR 11.302 ties STCW refresher requirements to MMC renewal cycles, but they are not the same cycle. You can renew your MMC and still have a stale STCW endorsement underneath it. Foreign port inspectors do not care that your card is shiny — they care about the date stamp on the endorsement page.

"Most officers I know with STCW 95 endorsements stopped paying attention to STCW after they got their MMC. Then they show up in Rotterdam with a 2009 cert and find out their boat's not leaving."

Tier 2 endorsements for officers

Beyond the seven, officers carry additional endorsements depending on rank, route, and vessel type. The big ones added or sharpened by Manila:

• ECDIS — required for any officer using Electronic Chart Display systems as primary navigation. Generic + type-specific training.
• Bridge Resource Management (BRM) — operational-level endorsement for deck officers. About 3 days.
• Engine Resource Management (ERM) — operational-level endorsement for engineers. About 3 days.
• Leadership and Managerial Skills — required for management-level endorsements (Master, Chief Mate, Chief Engineer, 2nd Engineer). About 3-5 days.
• Security awareness and, for designated officers, Vessel/Company Security Officer endorsements per STCW A-VI/6.

Specific endorsement requirements live in 46 CFR 11.301 through 11.337. The structure is dense but predictable: each section names the endorsement, the training, the sea service, and the assessment requirements.

STCW 95 vs Manila — the upgrade path

If you are still holding STCW 95 endorsements, your situation depends on issue date:

• Endorsements issued before Aug 1, 2013 generally had a transition window. Most expired or had to be upgraded by January 1, 2017.
• Post-2017, 46 CFR 11.301 requires Manila-compliant endorsements for ocean operation. There is no grandfather clause for routine commercial service on international voyages.
• The upgrade path runs through NMC Regional Exam Centers — typically a gap-fill course (1-3 days for most endorsements) plus the assessment. The NMC processing time is currently 6-10 weeks, longer at quarter-end.

If you are unsure where you stand, pull your MMC from the NMC mariner portal and read every endorsement line. The format itself tells you: Manila endorsements explicitly cite the 2010 amendments and the A-VI/X reference number.

Cyber: a 2025 STCW addition you should know about

IMO Resolution MSC.428(98) on Maritime Cyber Risk Management directs flag states to require Safety Management Systems to address cyber risks no later than the first DOC audit after January 1, 2021. STCW connects to this through the ISM Code: officers are expected to be trained on the cyber elements of their SMS.

In US-flag waters, this got teeth on July 16, 2025 when 46 CFR 101 Subpart F took effect. If you operate an MTSA-regulated vessel, your CySO designation, plan, and crew training are now part of your compliance footprint — and your STCW-trained officers are the ones running it day to day.

Common gotchas

The 5-year refresher trap. An officer renews their MMC at year 4 of the cycle, sees the new card, and assumes they're current. Twelve months later their PSC&RB or AFF endorsement quietly hits 5 years and 1 day. PSC stops them at the next foreign port. The MMC is fine. The endorsement is dead.

Foreign port detentions. Singapore, Rotterdam, Houston (yes, even US ports inspect foreign-flag), and the major Australian ports are particularly strict on Manila vs 95 dating. They don't argue. They detain.

Mixed crews. A US-flag vessel with a Filipino, Croatian, or Indian crew member needs to verify their flag-state STCW endorsements too. Your safety management system is responsible for the whole crew, not just the US passport holders. Manning agencies vary widely on document quality.

The "ocean" trap. Some US officers have inland or near-coastal endorsements they think satisfy STCW. They don't. STCW kicks in for international voyages and most "ocean" service. 46 CFR 11.201 defines the routes; if you are unsure, a 5-minute call to your Sector OCMI will tell you.

MMC vs STCW. The MMC is the credential card. STCW endorsements are entries on that card. Renewing one does not auto-renew the other. They share evidence (drug tests, physicals, sea service) but run on independent expiration logic.

A real example

A 4-vessel Hawaii-based offshore-supply outfit running operations to Mexico had their lead engineer's PSC&RB endorsement lapse 18 months past the 5-year refresher. It was caught at a routine USCG inspection in Honolulu — not even a foreign port. The vessel was released the same day after the engineer signed up for an expedited refresher class, but the operator lost a charter day of revenue ($4,200) and ate a $200 expedited course fee.

The crew thought they were tracking it. The MMC was current. The renewal calendar was on the office wall. Nobody had set an alert against the actual STCW endorsement date.

What Binnacle does

Binnacle AI tracks every STCW endorsement on every crew member, flagging at 90/60/30/7 days before refresher expiration with email + iCal alerts. It surfaces Manila-vs-95 status during compliance audits, integrates with the training matrix and the calendar feed so the 5-year refresher cycle never sneaks up, and exports an audit-ready PDF when PSC or your charterer asks for proof. The same record drives port-call readiness checks so an officer with a stale endorsement never gets scheduled onto a foreign voyage by accident.

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Capt J is the founder of Binnacle AI. He runs a small maritime tech company on Oʻahu that builds compliance tools for commercial fleets. None of this article is legal advice — consult a qualified maritime attorney for specific regulatory questions. Binnacle AI is not affiliated with the U.S. Coast Guard, the National Maritime Center, or the International Maritime Organization.