Boat Building Students

Students on the 40 week Boat Building, Maintenance and Support course come from a wide range of backgrounds. People find working closely as part of a group of mixed nationality and experience, with shared interests and common aims, is of enormous value.

Students ages have ranged from 18 to seventy two (although we have made exceptions for exceptional 17 year olds). The average age of our students is around 35. Some people are training for their first career, others are looking for a change, some are taking a sabbatical and others, after retirement, are doing something they have always dreamed of.

Students’ ambitions after the course vary:

to work in the marine industry (in yards ranging from small traditional yards to volume manufacturers like Spirit, Princess Yachts or Sunseeker)
to provide themselves with the practical skills to underpin, for example, a Marine Architecture degree or Yachtmaster qualification
to set up their own business
to use the practical skills they learn outside the marine industry (e.g. classic car restoration)
to build or restore a boat for themselves
to learn how to work with wood for the pleasure of it

At the end of longer courses students join our Graduates’ Network, a closed internet group. Through the network they can keep in touch with each other and events at the Academy. Via the Network the Academy offers graduates information on job vacancies (we are first port of call for many employers looking for staff before vacancies are advertised) and commissions we are offered which, because we do not take on commercial work, are passed on to our graduates.

See Graduate Case Studies for information on a representative sample of how our students have used their skills after the course. On the Testimonials page a range of students talk about their experience while on the course.