OVID Inspector Accreditation

The revised requirements (effective 01 Jan 2021) to become an OVID Inspector are as follows:

Work Experience

1. All Candidates
a. must have at least 48 months of overall sea service. This is actual time served on board as a certificated officer on offshore vessels or on ocean going vessels greater than 500gt.
b. must have at least 18 months of sea service either as a Master, Chief Officer, Chief Engineer or 1st/2nd Engineer. This is actual time served on board offshore vessels only.

2. Candidates with less than 48 months of overall sea service:
a. must be current employees of the nominating member company.
b. must have at least 36 months sea service on offshore vessels only. This is actual time served on board as a certificated officer.
c. must have at least 18 months of sea service as either a Master, Chief Officer, Chief Engineer or 1st/2nd Engineer on offshore vessels only.
d. must have undergone a structured and documented competence development training programme for upstream maritime assurance. This programme must be administered and delivered by the nominating OCIMF submitting member and must include:
i. at least 1 accompanied inspection on each type of vessel for which the candidate is being nominated.
ii. a DP familiarisation course from an industry recognized institute.
iii. either in-house or formal MODU familiarisation training (if nominated to inspect MODUs).

3. Candidates without offshore sea service:
a. must be current employees of the nominating member company.
b. must have at least 48 months overall sea service. This is actual time served on board as a certificated officer on ocean going vessels greater than 500gt.
c. must have at least 18 months of sea service as either a Master, Chief Officer, Chief Engineer or 1st/2nd Engineer.
d. must have undergone a structured and documented competence development training programme for upstream maritime assurance. This programme must be administered and delivered by the nominating OCIMF submitting member and must include:
i. at least 1 accompanied inspection on each type of vessel for which the candidate is being nominated.
ii. a DP familiarisation course from an industry recognized institute.
iii. either in-house or formal MODU familiarisation training (if nominated to inspect MODUs).

Equivalency

1. of the sea service required under sections 2.1.3.1.2, 2.1.3.2.2, 2.1.3.2.3 and 2.1.3.3.3 (of the OVID Inspector Training and Accreditation Guidelines), a maximum of 6 months or pro-rata thereof, may comprise of experience gained as per the equivalence table below.

Upstream Vetting or vessel quality assurance team staff of OCIMF Submitting Member Companies - 12 Months
OIM / Barge Master or Barge Engineer - 18 Months
DPO - 18 Months
Tow-Masters operating in offshore operational environment (e.g. Rig/Barge movers) - 18 Months
Mooring/loading master - 18 Months
Marine superintendent (managing offshore operations) - 18 Months
Maritime Authority Inspectors (e.g. Flag state, Port State Inspectors) - 18 Months

Employees of Vessel Operators are not permitted to become OVID Inspectors.

You must liaise with an OVID Submitting Company in order to be nominated to become an inspector.

The Submitting Company will send you an invitation with an electronic link that will enable you to complete and submit your application and all required information or documents to OCIMF for subsequent processing and approval.

In this context "sponsorship" means that one of the OCIMF Submitting Companies has agreed to nominate you to become an OCIMF Inspector.

Yes, you are still required to be nominated by a Submitting Company. In your case this may be your employer. You must liaise with the person within your company that is responsible for managing inspector applications and ask them to send you an invitation which will contain a link enabling you to complete and submit an application for review and processing by OCIMF.

We do not accept direct applications from third party candidates – unfortunately, without sponsorship from an OCIMF Member, you will not be able to apply to attend an OVID New Inspector course.

Course fees will be either be the responsibility of yourself or your employer. This should be agreed ahead of time.

The fees to attend a 3 day New Inspector course are £800.

Your course fees cover the cost of the 3 day New Inspector course – this includes lunch and refreshments, and your course materials.

Any additional expenses, such as travel and accommodation, are your own responsibility.

Your accreditation will last for 3 years from the date you sat the exam as long as you maintain minimum annual inspection requirements. In addition, you will be required to attend a Refresher course during the last 12 months of your accreditation in order to extend it for another 3 years.

This is a 3-day classroom based course.

It provides candidates with an overview of the history of OCIMF and OVID; an introduction to the OVID inspection programme, the theory of OVID inspections, the processes and procedures required to carry out an OVID inspection.

The 3-day course ends with an examination which consists of two parts. Results are released by email approximately 14 days after the course.

Successful candidates are provided with login details to access their OVID profiles. A certificate of accreditation with a corresponding inspector ID card is sent by post.

You must not accept any inspection requests until you have received your ID card.

Unsuccessful candidates will be able to take a resit.

The first resit may be made within three months of the first failed examination, a second attempt can be made within three months after the first resit.

A maximum of three attempts are allowed. Applicants will be permanently disqualified from inspecting under the OVID Programme if they have three unsuccessful attempts at the examination.

Once confirmation from OCIMF has been received that your application has been approved, you will receive an invitation to attend a 3-day new inspector course.

In the weeks preceding the course you have been invited to attend, you will receive information with final course confirmation, access to the OCIMF learning management platform where you will be able to access course material and details of the venue.

All candidates will need to register and create an account to access the OCIMF learning management platform.

Candidates required to undertake accompanied inspections must complete these before they attend the course.

Once your completed application form has been approved by us, and your online profile is added to one of our courses, you will receive an automated email which contains a link to pay for the course electronically, with a debit or credit card.

If you are not paying for the course, you can forward the email to the relevant person within your organisation who can then click on the link and follow the instructions to pay for the course.

This is our preferred payment method – however we can raise an invoice for your company if there is no way for you pay with debit or credit card. If this applies to you then please provide us with as much notice as possible; this is very time consuming for us, and we only have one person who does all of the administration for the OVID courses.

Please note that in the event of late payment, the exam results will be withheld until the balance is settled.

No – we do not accept any applications from candidates who are employed by vessel operators.

If you have any further questions, or would like to discuss your question in more detail, please feel free to contact us on This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In addition, if you commence employment with a vessel operator while you are an accredited OVID inspector, you must notify us so that we can suspend your inspector account. If you do not notify us and continue to carry out inspections, and we become aware of the fact from another source, then you will be disqualified from being an OVID inspector.

What are the minimum inspection requirements?

Replace answer with:
The current minimum number of inspections required each year is (4) four.

Failure to meet the minimum inspection requirement

Any inspector who fails to submit the minimum number of inspections during the year will, on the 31 December of the same year, have their accreditation temporarily withdrawn.

Further information on the minimum inspection requirements can be found in section 2.4.3 of the current OVID Inspector Training & Accreditation Guidelines.

- You must already be an existing OVID inspector
- Within the last 12 months prior to your accreditation expiry date
- Must be incompliance with the annual minimum inspection requirement

From 1st January 2015 you will be required to complete 4 inspections a year in order to retain your accreditation / attend a Refresher course in future. Again, if you are a direct Marine Assurance employee of an OCIMF member then you will only need to complete 2 inspection per year. Please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. to advise us if this applies to you.

Inspectors who have submitted three reports in the previous calendar year can regain accreditation by attending and successfully completing an inspector refresher course.

Inspectors who have submitted two or fewer (2,1,0) reports in the previous calendar year must be nominated by a submitting member, attend a three-day new inspector course and successfully pass the examinations for which re-accreditation is sought under the same procedures as applicable for an applicant inspector.

Inspectors who fail to be re-accredited within two years of the date their accreditation was temporarily withdrawn, but who wish to regain accreditation, must be nominated by a submitting member to attend a three-day applicant inspector’s course and successfully pass the examinations for which re-accreditation is sought under the same procedures as a new inspector course.

If you fail to attend a refresher course prior to your expiry date, your accreditation will automatically suspend at the date of the expiry.

Inspectors who fail to be re-accredited within two years of the date their accreditation was temporarily withdrawn, but who wish to regain accreditation, must be nominated by a submitting member to attend a three-day applicant inspector’s course and successfully pass the examinations for which re-accreditation is sought under the same procedures as a new inspector course.

There is no charge for the Refresher courses. If the course is a physical course, refreshments and lunch are provided, but your travel costs and accommodation are your own responsibility.

This is a 2 day course. The course doesn’t go into as much depth, as it aims to just refresh your memories, and give you a summary of the recent changes that you should be aware of – both in terms of OVID itself, and also relevant legislation / industry requirements.

You must upload a passport style photograph to your OVID profile – this is required for your ID card if you successfully pass the exam. Please see the OCIMF guidelines below on standards of photographs to be submitted for ID Cards.