The Crew Report - Nautic Crew International

76 THE CREW MESS Perhaps if we allCredit: The GuardianTRAINING– YOU GETWHAT YOUPAY FORMHR asks crew to puton their thinking hatsand propose to theindustry what we cando to better educatethe crew of tomorrow.I was recently quoted to say that many crewtrainingorganisations are just putting theircandidates through a process of teachingthem the statutory basics and then testingwhat they have been taught in that shorttime frame, the end result being lots ofjuniors with a piece of paper and in manycases unprepared for life on board.This created a wave of protest from manyof the training companies suggesting thatthis is not the case and everything is perfect.However, if we were all honest with eachother we know we could better develop thenext generation of crew.In the same context, I recently tweetedabout a feature in The Guardian, a UKnewspaper, that had the title, ‘Wanted:servants for the super rich’. The storywas referring to a training programme inthe South of France that was focusing onfolding towels and plumping up cushions onsundecks – the very basics of hospitality. Thearticle was cynical, sarcastic and demeaning,suggesting that crew are merely servantsto make rich people happy. However, inmy opinion the crew are there for the safeoperation of the vessel and the safety of theguests – the service aspect is secondary. Yes,it’s important to make sure our owners andtheir guests are having an amazing timeand getting what they want, but anyone thatworks on a yacht should be referred to as aseafarer rather than a servant – but perhapsthat’s the problem. When someone entersthe industry as a greenhorn crewmember,perhaps they have been told it is all aboutservice, just like being in a ski chalet or alarge house. I would like to point out thathouses and chalets don’t pitch, yaw or rollaround in heavy seas or have the potential tobe unpredictable.So my question to all of you is, what ismissing from the world of training? Whatare your frustrations with the industry froman educational perspective and if we had ablank piece of paper what would you want ina new course for the superyacht market?This is a serious request and an attemptto get the captains, trainers, managers,crew at all levels and any owners that maybe reading this to give their input to aperfect training syllabus that will improvethe manning and operation of large yachts.The courses today seem to all be focused onwhat the authorities impose on our crew;there are some exceptions but perhaps if weall stopped and thought for a moment wemight put forward some really valuable ideasfor new courses and topics that need to beintroduced in order to seriously focus thecrew on the future of the market.The other thing I want to pose to themarket is based on the title, ‘You get whatyou pay for’. With the vast array of coursesout there and many more emerging, thiscompetitive arena could in fact be damagedif there isn’t a sound business model. If thecrew can’t afford to invest in furtheringtheir career or only have a short-term viewand therefore only go for the very basicstatutory tickets, what can we do to makesure the professional crew developmentis not stalled by a lack of investment? So Inow ask, who should pay for training andcareer development, and do any of youhave any bright ideas to make sure crew areinvested in, developed, retained and loyal interms of their training and career paths? Ifyou have any ideas or suggestions on whatnew training topics, course structures andamendments to existing courses are needed,and perhaps a view on who should foot thebill, then I think we could end up with aconstructive output. After all, without loyal,professional and great crew our owners tendto get frustrated and lose interest.To commenT on This arTicle, emaillulu@ThesuperyachTgroup.com wiThsubjecT: Tcr 65 The crew messstopped and thoughtfor a moment we mightput forward some reallyvaluable ideas for newcourses and topics thatneed to be introducedin order to seriouslyfocus the crew on thefuture of the market.