Late at night, somewhere in India, a father is reading a notice on his phone. His son finished school a little while ago. The notice says Shipping Corporation of India, and for the first time in months he feels his shoulders come down. A government name. A real ship. Surely this one is safe.
We understand that feeling, and it is why we are writing this. The GP Rating course at the Maritime Training Institute (MTI) in Powai, Mumbai is a serious course with a real training berth on real ships. It also costs up to ₹4.5 lakh, and its own notice says in capital letters that it does not guarantee a job afterwards.
Most families will never read that far. Please read it before you sell anything or sign a loan. Here is what the official documents say, what changed in 2026, and what nobody has published yet. All of it was checked on 5 November 2026.
| What you want to know | What the official notice says |
|---|---|
| Course | GP Rating Leading to NCV Deck Officer |
| Duration | 6 months pre-sea, then 12 months shipboard training on SCI vessels |
| Fee | ₹4,50,000 for men, ₹3,60,000 for women. Not refundable, in full or in part |
| Stipend | ₹10,000 a month, during shipboard training only |
| Selection | MTI’s own online application and exam, then interview and medical |
| Bond | 3 years (1,095 days) of sea service if SCI requires it. ₹3 lakh payable on breach |
| Job after training | Not guaranteed |
| Last intake | Batch NCV-05: applications 8 April to 3 May 2026 |
| Next intake | Not announced as of 5 November 2026 |
Keep an eye on MTI’s notification page. MTI says updates are posted there, and on the day we checked it showed no new GP Rating notice.
MTI was founded by the Shipping Corporation of India in 1988. Its course page now places it under SCILAL, the land and assets company demerged from SCI, while the shipboard training happens on SCI vessels. So you may see both names, and that alone is not a warning sign.
We also checked the regulator’s list of approved institutes ourselves. On 5 November 2026 it showed an entry named simply “MTI”, number 201003, at 52-C Adi Shankaracharya Marg, Powai, with the status Approved. You can search that list too. It takes two minutes, and it is the same check we would ask you to run on any institute, including ours. DG Shipping now also goes by the name Directorate General of Maritime Administration (DGMA), so do not be confused by the new website address.
According to MTI’s 2026 notice, you need one of these:
You also need:
MTI gives preference to Class 12 science students, so a Class 10 candidate should not assume the odds are equal.
The age limit needs care. MTI’s notice says 17.5 to 25 years on the date of admission, with relaxations of 5 years for SC/ST, 3 years for OBC-NCL and an extra 2 years for women. But DGS Order 12 of 2026, issued on 23 May, raised the upper limit for approved GP Rating courses to 28 years from 1 August 2026. MTI’s page has not caught up, and we found no statement from MTI on how it will apply this. If you are 26 or 27, do not give up, and do not assume you are safe either. Wait for the next notice and read the age line first.
You can check your own numbers with our merchant navy eligibility and age calculator, but MTI’s next notice has the final word.
MTI does not use IMU CET for this course. Its GP Rating documents never mention it, and it runs its own process:
MTI publishes no question count, no marking scheme and no fixed cut-off. Pass marks depend on how everyone performs. So if a website gives you a confident “safe score” for this exam, ask where it came from.
One thing worries us here. The medical comes last, after you have paid for travel to the exam and to Mumbai. It would be heartbreaking to clear everything and then fall on colour vision. MTI does not ask for this, but we would see a DG-approved doctor before you start. Our guide to the merchant navy medical test explains what to expect.
The headline fee is only where the arithmetic starts. Your child earns ₹10,000 a month for the 12 months on board, which comes to ₹1.2 lakh.
| Men | Women | |
|---|---|---|
| Course fee | ₹4,50,000 | ₹3,60,000 |
| Stipend over 12 months | ₹1,20,000 | ₹1,20,000 |
| Net cost before other expenses | ₹3,30,000 | ₹2,40,000 |
That does not include exam and interview travel, the medical, or any loan interest. MTI says nothing is paid while ashore. It also publishes no fee break-up, so we cannot tell you what the fee covers for hostel, food, uniform, deposits or GST. Selected candidates get the payment schedule by email. Ask before you commit.
And remember that one word in the notice: not refundable. If your child is homesick in the second month and comes home, that money does not come back with them.
This is the part we most want you to read slowly. MTI’s notice says selection is only for one-time shipboard training, and that it “DOES NOT GUARANTEE ANY FURTHER EMPLOYMENT OR EXTENSION OF SHIP BOARD TRAINING.”
Before boarding, the trainee signs an indemnity bond to serve on SCI vessels, if SCI requires, for 3 years (1,095 days of sea service). Breaking it makes you liable for ₹3 lakh. The page prints the figure oddly as “₹ 3,000,00/-“, but the words say Three Lakhs.
Look at how those two lines sit together. SCI may call on your child for three years. SCI does not promise to call. The notice also says MTI will not give a no-objection letter for shipboard training with another company, and that anyone who goes elsewhere cannot come back to the scheme.
This does not make it a bad course. A defined training berth is exactly what many GP Rating students struggle to find, and that is worth something. But it is a training seat with conditions. It is not a government job, and please do not let anyone describe it to you as one. Anyone who says “100% placement” should show you where the notice says that.
We could not find what happens to a trainee whom SCI never calls, or whether the bond has ever been enforced. Ask MTI in writing.
After 12 months on board, MTI says candidates become eligible for the NWKO (Near Coastal Vessel) exam and orals, and earn a certificate of competency if they pass. So the course gives your child a chance at an exam. It does not hand over a rank.
Be careful about one more thing. The older name was “Leading to 2nd Mate NCV”, and the web address still says so. Near Coastal is not the same as a foreign-going 2nd Mate certificate, so do not assume the pay, ships and travel will match what you have seen on a captain’s Instagram page.
We found no official SCI pay scale after training, no pass rates, and no figures on how long trainees wait for a ship. Our merchant navy salary guide gives indicative ranges by rank, but please treat them as a guide, not a promise.
These figures do not compare like with like, because institutes do not publish what they include in the same way. Use them as a starting point only.
| Route | Published fee | What to notice |
|---|---|---|
| SCI MTI, Powai | ₹4,50,000 / ₹3,60,000 | Named fleet and a training berth, but a bond and restricted exit |
| GEIMS, Lonavala (July 2026 prospectus) | ₹4,86,000 | Candidates are called “sponsored” and still pay the fee |
| Private institutes, as reported by Marine Insight (Sept 2026) | About ₹1.95 to ₹2.6 lakh | Cheaper to start. Confirm the fee and the first-ship arrangement directly |
That GEIMS line teaches something useful: in GP Rating, “sponsored” does not have to mean free. We found no fully funded route in the sources we read. And no institute we checked publishes batch-wise figures on how many students reached a first ship, or how quickly. It is the one number every parent wants, and it is not out there. Ask for it anyway, and notice how the institute answers. Our main GP Rating course page covers the wider route.
DGS Order 12 of 2026 is the biggest change for GP Rating aspirants this year, and it took effect on 1 August 2026:
The reason behind that last rule should stop every parent for a moment. The order says about 3,50,000 people got a CDC on the five basic courses, and nearly 1,80,000 of them never got a first ship. Think of the money each of those families spent, and the hopes they spent it on. These figures cover seafarers generally, not SCI or GP Rating alone. Our CDC guide explains what the document is.
The same order describes how agents operate: they find young people from remote and poorer areas, charge heavily for “long-duration” pre-sea training, keep them in lodges, and then enrol them only in short courses. An October 2026 press report counted 538 valid recruitment licence (RPSL) holders against 396 invalid or expired and 66 suspended.
We found no fraud using SCI MTI’s name. That is not the same as saying it cannot happen, because a ₹4.5 lakh fee is an obvious target. So:
If someone says they have “a setting” inside SCI and can get your child selected for a payment, please walk away. Your worry is doing its job.
Keep the replies. If a question goes unanswered, that tells you something too.
It suits a young person who values a defined berth on a known fleet, wants the near-coastal officer exam route, and comes from a family that can absorb a non-refundable fee. It is a weak fit if your family is borrowing on the belief that SCI will employ your child for life, because the notice does not say that anywhere.
Whatever you decide, please have the conversation at home first. We wrote a separate piece on what we want parents to know, and if your child is just starting out, here is how to join the merchant navy after 10th.
Go back to that father with his phone for a moment. His relief is not foolish. He just deserves the full picture before he feels it. A good decision here will not feel like a lottery win. It will feel like two people at a kitchen table who have read every line, and said yes anyway.
If you would like help preparing for GP Rating selection, or simply want to ask these questions out loud, talk to us at Officers Maritime Academy in Dehradun. You can read more about our GP Rating coaching first.
A: MTI’s 2026 notice lists ₹4,50,000 for men and ₹3,60,000 for women, and fees are not refundable. MTI does not publish a break-up of what this covers, so ask before you commit.
A: MTI’s GP Rating documents do not mention IMU CET. MTI runs its own online exam, followed by an interview in Mumbai and a medical by a DG-approved doctor.
A: No. The notice says the course is for one-time shipboard training and does not guarantee further employment. Trainees receive ₹10,000 a month during the 12 months of shipboard training.
A: MTI’s last notice says 17.5 to 25 years, with category relaxations. DGS Order 12 of 2026 raised the GP Rating upper limit to 28 from 1 August 2026, so check the next MTI notice for how it applies.
A: As of 5 November 2026, MTI had not announced a new intake. The last batch, NCV-05, took applications from 8 April to 3 May 2026. Watch the notification page on MTI’s own website.
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