Officer Corps of the Royal Navy

The officer corps of the Royal Navy is the cadre of personnel holding a commission from the sovereign appointing them in a position of authority in the Royal Navy.

There are three main routes of entry to the officer corps; direct entry, professional entry and the upper yardman scheme.

Direct entrants are recruited as civilians and undertake a full course of training to become employable.

Professional entrants are individuals who have qualified professionally in the civilian environment and their employment in the Royal Navy will use these qualifications. These are doctors, dentists, nursing officers and chaplains.

The upper yardman scheme allows for ratings identified as potential officers to be selected for commissioning training and operates in two ways. An upper yardman under 30 years of age will join a direct entry class, undertakes the same training path and is otherwise treated as a direct entrant. Candidates for upper yardman can transfer to any specialisation in the officer corps.

The senior upper yardman scheme allows for very experienced ratings identified as potential specialist officers to be commissioned. Candidates for the senior upper yardman scheme will be over 35 years of age and undertake a short training period at Dartmouth before being employed within the same specialisation as their rating career.

Initial officer training is undertaken at Britannia Royal Naval College, Dartmouth and at sea undergoing initial sea training. Junior officers are appointed to seagoing ships for common and specialist fleet time and will then undertake specialist training as appropriate to their branch.

Officers enter the service in one of the available branches; warfare, engineer, logistics, medical, and with each of these are a range of sub-specialisations. Entry into a sub-specialisation may define career direction or may only be for a short period.

There is a general view of a two stage career where one is employed in predominantly operational roles in the early stage of a career, and then predominantly strategic management in the later stage.

Specialist fleet training for junior warfare officers concentrates on shiphandling, seamanship and bridge watchkeeping. The initial warfare officers' (IWO) course is undertaken at the Maritime Warfare School leading to a first complement job in a surface ship. Junior submarine warfare officers undertake training at the Submarine School at HMS Raleigh in Torpoint before being appointed to a complement job in a submarine. The junior warfare officer is responsible for navigation and bridge watchkeeping, where they will ensure the navigational safety of all ship operations on behalf of the captain.

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Wikipedia