Coastguard watch officer
Also called coastguard, coastguard officer, coastguard rescue officer
Coastguard watch officers patrol and survey coast and sea regions to prevent accidents, as well as perform search and rescue missions in the event of an emergency. They react to emergency calls, advise on safety procedures, and prevent accidents and illegal activity at sea. Coastguard watch officers investigate shipping activities and aid during pollution incidents and in flood relief.
What you'd do
Protective services workers not elsewhere classified · ILO- Patrolling beaches and swimming pools to prevent accidents and to rescue bathers from drowning
- Monitoring traffic flow to locate safe gaps through which pedestrians can cross streets
- Responding to citizen complaints concerning stray domestic animals, livestock and wildlife, issuing warnings and citations to owners and impounding lost, homeless and dangerous animals
- Patrolling an assigned area to enforce parking regulations
- Directing traffic
- Indoors and outdoors
- A mix of sitting and standing
- Constant contact with people, including the public
- Some freedom to decide
- Usually under 40 hours a week
- Deadlines now and then
- Some repetitive tasks
Will there be jobs?
Limited prospectsFewer jobs than in most work will need filling by 2035.
Solid: measured. Dashed: forecast.
What does it pay?
Below averagePay depends a lot on the country: from about €700 a month (Bulgaria) to €5,400 (Belgium), before tax.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see typical pay there, for people under 30, and compared with all jobs.
Among service and sales workers in the EU, women earn 3% less per hour than men. Service and sales workers · Eurostat
What do I need to study?
Upper secondary or vocationalUpper secondary or vocational training in protection of persons and property is the usual route.
Pick a country at the top of the page to see where to study and the official course finders.
Will AI change it?
Very littleAI could help with only small parts of the tasks.
Average task score 0.20 on a scale from 0 (AI can't do it) to 1 (AI could do it fully).
See the score for each of the 5 tasks
Based on what AI could technically do when assessed in 2025. It is not a forecast for a future year, and not a forecast of job losses. Scores for protective services workers not elsewhere classified. Source: ILO (2025), adapted (credits).