Artikel 2

1. The competent authority shall make arrangements for the holding of examinations and for the granting of certificates of qualification.
2. No person shall be granted a certificate of qualification unless —
(a) he has reached a minimum age to be prescribed by the competent authority;
(b) he has served at sea in the deck department for a minimum period to be prescribed by the competent authority; and
(c) he has passed an examination of proficiency to be prescribed by the competent authority.
3. The prescribed minimum age shall not be less than eighteen years.
4. The prescribed minimum period of service at sea shall not be less than thirty-six months: Provided that the competent authority may —
(a) permit persons with a period of actual service at sea of not less than twenty-four months who have successfully passed through a course of training in an approved training school to reckon the time spent in such training, or part thereof, as sea service; and
(b) permit persons trained in approved sea-going training ships who have served eighteen months in such ships to be certificated as able seamen upon leaving in good standing.
5. The prescribed examination shall provide a practical test of the candidate's knowledge of seamanship and of his ability to carry out effectively all the duties that may be required of an able seaman, including those of a lifeboatman; it shall be such as to qualify a successful candidate to hold the special lifeboatman's certificate provided for in Article 22 of the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea, 1929, or in the corresponding provision of any subsequent Convention revising or replacing that Convention for the time being in force for the territory concerned.