KEY POINTS:
Getting a good job in an exciting industry with no student loan. That may sound too good to be true, but that's the aim of the new course at NorthTec in Whangarei.
Devised by tutors Glenn Maconaghie and Roger Rhodes, the 2007 courses last just 12 weeks. Each is a short and sharp boatbuilding skills programme. It is a NZQA unit standard based course that has been developed to meet strong industry and trainee requirements.
The tutors say the industry needs skilled boatbuilders and trainees with a good overview of the marine industry to be trained in modern apprenticeships. There is also a demand for engineers and project managers and the knowledge obtained on the short courses will be invaluable to those contemplating university education and a future in marine specialisation.
The tutoring duo began working together at NorthTec in 2000 when they were asked to develop a series of short courses. These have evolved over the years to cater for the differing needs of the industry. They also provide several traditional industry block courses each year.
"Glenn and I bounce a lot of ideas off each other and eventually these meld into something that's workable," says Rhodes. "It seems that this time we have come up with a winning formula."
There is some theory but the course is mainly practical - learning by doing - on real boats and components. They also learn how to technically draw and sketch boats and to understand construction drawings.
Unit standards cover basic skills such as receiving instructions and taking notes, using tools and working safely, making and processing timber and composite materials, drawing and marking out boats for construction, computer technology and teamwork. All of the unit standards in the programme can be cross-credited to a boatbuilding apprenticeship.
The first eight weeks is full time, five days a week at the NorthTec purpose built marine facility in Port Road, Whangarei. In the second four weeks trainees get to work in on of several participating local boatbuilding operations. For this segment each trainee is allocated a workplace mentor and regular checks are made by the NorthTec tutors to monitor progress.
Accommodation can be arranged for students and work experience placements may be completed in locations other than Northland, making the course an excellent option no matter where the trainee is based.
One of many companies to have taken advantage of the courses is Specialist Marine Interiors, a Whangarei company that has teams working on its contracts as far afield as Taiwan, Hong Kong and Mississippi. The company took eight people on from the first programme devised in part to meet its specific needs. Components are made in Whangarei and shipped to the yards where the boats are being built and installed by skilled SMI trades people.
Jake Jacobsen from SMI says the Tenix project the company was working on needed people trained in the field of aluminium joinery in construction of four 55m patrol craft for the Navy.
"The same metal joinery skills are also a big part of superyacht construction," Jacobsen says. "Behind the polished woodwork and plush interior layout the construction regulations regarding fire often specify aluminium or steel for the structural work."
The company has plenty of work ahead. It has people at the Trinity Yachts shipyard in Mississippi working on a 58m (192ft) superyacht and has three similar projects coming up for that yard alone.
Other Whangarei companies supporting the NorthTec short-course project include Austral Yachts, Northland Contract Boatbuilders, Tenix, Burch and Mason, New Zealand Yachts and Circa Marine.
The next course is early 2007 and others will follow to meet demand. Contact number is (09) 459 7554.
