The Future of Yacht Training
As the profile of yacht crews start to evolve, changes must be considered as the industry inevitably follows suit. Michael French weighs in on a sector of the maritime world that is increasingly becoming impacted by STCW and other regulatory pressures.
Yacht Crew training has, at last, taken its rightful place near the top of the agenda of the yachting sector. Check out a yachting forum, open a magazine or attend a seminar and one will find a number of parties vying for the attention of ‘yachties’, discussing training issues and promoting the various alternatives.
The training path is now more defined than ever and it is finally intertwined with sea service and on board training. This in turn means that yacht crew need more and more guidance and advice in navigating their way through the seemingly endless bureaucracy involved in sufficing the certification requirements that keep their careers on track. Navigating the British government’s MCA website for example is a challenge in itself.
The connection has now been made by the yachting industry, that training is a vital part of the career experience of yacht crew. The clearly delineated path up through the ranks has become the road map that ambitious crew follow, even though it may take them across the deck of several different yachts. At a time when “crew turnover” is a concern, it is quite possible then, that the present training requirement is a contributory factor. The crew turnover statistics in the yachting sector are indeed quite frightening. It is rare to find a ‘stayer’, or a boat without a significant turnover of crewmembers and this can mean one thing; they are not happy with their lot. Turnover is actually crew ‘voting with their feet’ and it is this that has raised awareness of their situation.
In the commercial sector, crew may have the option of training and gaining experience aboard different vessels within one company structure. However yachting rarely has one owner with more than one yacht and management companies do not get formally involved with crossover of yacht crew between vessels. It would seem that crew do not always get enough time off in order to complete their training. For this reason they often see the next step on the ladder that the training affords them, as being more lucrative when applied to another yacht. It is not always the case but it is probably fair to say that yachts that offer career progression in line with further training and experience are few and far between.
The relevance of the present qualification system can be legitimately challenged in the modern era, particularly as the industry is advancing at such a rapid rate. There can be no doubt that the MCA’s qualification system for yacht crew has improved the standards of operation for yachts. However, the question remains as to where to go from here and this question demands careful attention. It is important to use the best information available to inform the decisions made today that we will have to live with tomorrow. The MCA is without doubt the pre eminent force in determining the future of yacht crew simply because of the number of yachts flagged with the red ensign training. Changes must be considered as the industry inevitably evolves.
Yacht Crew as a Demographic
The profile of yacht crew in general is starting to evolve. More nationalities are moving into the sector and as the career path becomes more defined as a result of the definitive certification standards, commercially trained officers are starting to come into the field. It is becoming more and more normal to see yacht crew who speak English as a second language. Along with the influx of different nationalities is an increase in the age of yacht crew. At least one recruitment agency reports that it places more people above the age of 35 years old than ever before. For a training institution this means that the customer profile is starting to change and this is a factor that will surely influence the packaging and delivery of training courses.
The present system of qualification training assumes that a crew member will start at the bottom and continue all the way to the very highest levels of certification, but the demographic statistics would begin to suggest that this may not be the same for all crew members. Many are at quite different stages in their professional lifecycle. The itineraries of ever larger yachts do not suit everybody, particularly older people, as they tend to have priorities that may conflict with a life at sea, aboard a yacht. This factor has already heralded the concept of rotational crew positions for many.
The fact is, training as a requirement may mean different things to people who are not planning on taking the elevator to the top floor but are intent on getting off somewhere on the way up. For many American yacht captains for example, the 200 ton licence allows command of most domestically operated yachts.
Future training courses will need to address this issue and consider giving more and relevant training earlier on in the career lifecycle. The present system is focused on providing the total training needed by the end of the training cycle and not building on the basics. Crew who wish to only take courses up to a level less than the ultimate available in the present MCA system, do not always have any basic training in for example, business and law, which comes after the 200 ton licence mark. This means that a captain of large yachts less than 200 tons, which still outnumber their bigger sisters, are not taught important rules such as the requirement for crew agreements where appropriate. Basic management practice such as this is regularly reported to be weak or nonexistent amongst crew members. Here is an example where the crew turnover issue could be addressed through a slight refocusing of the present training cycle.
Training as a business
It has long been suggested by many that the training schools are simply capitalizing on the requirement to train for a career in yachting. The fact is that training is an investment intensive industry that is hobbled by the fact that the course construction is determined by legislation that does not consider profit or commercial sustainability of the training cycle. The vast majority of yacht crew undertake training simply because they have to and not because they perceive benefits in terms of their personal education and development. Correspondingly few crewmembers take any sort of training beyond that which they require to get to the next level of their career. This in turn means that there are very few training courses available to them outside those required in law as they would therefore simply unviable on a business level. This is a vicious cycle that is difficult to overcome. Crewmembers are not offered useful training because it is not available and it is not available because there is no demand. It is mistakenly left to the yachts themselves to provide the additional training necessary to become a successful crewmember.
A yacht captain who has completed less than 20 weeks in total of training has the potential to make an income in line with highest salaried white collar worker. Quite comparable with a doctor or lawyer who has to undertake years of training which costs many times as much. Unfortunately for the training industry, a UK certified 3000 ton master of yachts has absolutely no requirement to undergo any ongoing training save for a three day medical course every five years. This means in business terms that the establishment that has provided training has a limited window of opportunity to make money. After the highest level of training which is most difficult to provide and yet often no more profitable than the very basic level of training, training companies have no opportunity to offer further training to that captain. Even though in the rest of the yachting business sector they may consider he or she as a good customer.
There is much talk of scholarships for incoming yacht crew and even bursaries for the best candidates but this misses the point. If we are to benefit the industry we should be looking ahead at making useful, practical courses that captains or aspiring captains will benefit by taking. Ask a management company and they will often tell you that basic accounting is a skill that is lacking in yacht management. Ask a crew member and they will often tell you that management training is lacking on board.
Ask a captain and very few would consider learning any of these skills which could prove useful, if they are recognized as a cost to themselves. This means that they do not truly recognize the inherent value of training. This alone would seem to point to the future of more practically oriented, relevant training which could benefit the trainee and the increase the training cycle of the for training establishment.
Technological Improvements
Convenience has long been the enemy of scheduling training courses both for those receiving and providing courses. This issue has been answered by many other sectors in industry through the use of distance learning techniques which have advanced in concert with improvements in technology. A busy yacht is not always the best place to be learning one’s trade. Different crew members working on different boats can and do, have dramatically different on the job training experiences. On the job training is a vital part the present system of certification with the balance of formal training undertaken in the classroom. The future of yacht training must incorporate a distance learning feature into its design if it is to effectively serve its busy customers the yacht crew themselves.
International Yacht Training (IYT) is already working on designing courses materials and content in such a way as to be applicable in a distance learning format. Technology such as on board internet connection and educational software will contribute to this area of development and the crew members in training will likely be afforded many more options in training at their own convenience.
The process already works in many sectors such as the aviation industry amongst others but their advantage is the business viability of the process. As mentioned this is a difficult equation in the yachting sector where legislation determines training needs independently of the market.
Despite being purely for recreational use, yachts are mission specific. In the same way that tankers carry fuel and fishing boats catch fish, yachts have a definitive role to play. Yacht training will always have to rely on standard maritime practices as the blueprint for its training but in order to become more engaging and relevant it will have to define itself in a sustainable way. Online education and non obligatory courses that offer tangible benefit to crew members may well become the future bread and butter of the yacht training industry.
• About the Author:
Michael French is president of INTERNATIONAL YACHT TRAINING, the Ft Lauderdale based yacht crew training school and the largest of its kind in the world. Michael started his career as a yachting instructor at the age of 18 before undertaking a sail research project for the British Government in the Sudan. This led to a new direction working for the UN in relief operations in Africa. After being kidnapped in Somalia, Michael returned to the slightly safer, yachting environment where he has worked as a captain for the past 10 years. On the WEB: www.yachtmaster.com