One of the responsibilities of the associations is to choose apprentices from the list of applicants supplied by the Board of Commissioners. Along with numerous Coast Guard licenses, stricter rules require most applicants for an apprenticeship to now have a college degree. Most now are maritime college graduates.

• 5 to 6 years of maritime experience

-Knowledge of the waters they serve
-May be substituted with a maritime college degree

• Coast Guard licensed

  -Re-certified every 5 years

• Minimum 12-18 month apprenticeship

  -Required number of vessel movements under the supervision of a licensed pilot

• Continuing education hours and ship simulator courses

Continuing Education
The Commission has established continuing education requirements. They, much like the U.S. Coast Guard, realize that the Maritime Industry is continually changing and becoming more technologically oriented. With this in mind, the Commission requires that each pilot receive at least 40 hours of continuing education credit in addition to scale model training or simulator training every license renewal period.

The members of the LRPA strive to keep pilot training and continuing education at the highest of standards.