Background to Shipping is an introductory course to the shipping business.

You can start whenever you like, take as long as you like (up to 9 months) and there is no need to attend an exam centre…

Background to Shipping is the flexible, quick start course for anyone interested in learning about shipping.

”Background to Shipping is very interesting, very useful and written in very simple understandable language… the course is simply perfect” – Juris Dombrovskis, Ship Agent at Wm H Muller Baltic Ltd

”The Background to Shipping course has helped me organize the knowledge I had about shipping and provided additional useful information. Even though English is a second language to me, I found the course easy to read and understand.” – Sabina Cimpoieru Ryan, UAE

Nine Lessons

The course contains 9 lessons covering:

• Ships and Trade
  • Global shipping and trading patterns. Types of vessels. Maritime geography
• The Business and its players
  • Shipping companies: principals, intermediaries and practitioners: their role and responsibilities. National and International organisations. Classification and registration societies. Shipping contracts
• Bills of Lading
  • The three functions and different types of Bills of lading. Release and delivery of cargo
• Port Agency
  • Role and authority of an agent. Port services and the providers. Cargo working. Husbandry. Local requirements
• Bulk Carrier and Tanker Documents
  • Charter parties and other documents. Basic laytime concepts
• Liner Agency Documentation
  • The agency agreement. Space allocation, sales and marketing, dealing with cargo bookings, special cargo. Documentation. Conferences and consortia
• Chartering
  • The chartering markets and different types of charter. How the deal is made. The charterer’s authority and responsibility. Post fixture responsibilities. Brokerage. Specialist brokers
• Ports and Cargoes
  • The location, origins and facilities of ports. A selection of some ports with details of their import and export facilities
• Ship Management and Operations
  • Different types of management – integral or independent managers. Roles and responsibilities of a ship management department

At the end of each lesson, there is a multiple choice test to be completed online.

You will receive instant feedback on your score with email confirmation.

Successful candidates will be awarded a Coracle TutorShip certificate, validated by The Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers.

• Successful candidates are those who achieve over 60%
• You will be awarded a pass with merit if you score over 90%

Access to the course is for a maximum of 9 months – there is no minimum time requirement and there are no course pre-requisites.