GCCM Supports Boating Industry Academy

Gold Coast City Marina & Shipyard (GCCM) recently announced that they are one of the founding Industry partners of the new Boating Industry Academy. The Boating Industry Association (BIA) has partnered with the Australian Industry Trade College (AITC) to establish the Boating Industry Academy, the first industry-driven program for high school students wishing to pursue a career in the boating and marine industries.

The Academy is for career-minded young people in Year 10 or 11 (2023) looking to work in the boating and marine industry. Students spend five weeks a term in school at the AITC Robina campus on the Gold Coast and up to 28 weeks a year in the boating industry at the Coomera marine precinct. The program is designed to develop employability skills via work experience and immersion in a wide range of functions within the industry.

This opportunity for exposure provides students with a solid base of key skills and industry knowledge before commencing a school-based apprenticeship/ traineeship in Term 3 of Year 11. The specialist program started at the Robina campus in January 2023 with a view to moving to a Coomera base, in the heart of the largest marine precinct in the Southern Hemisphere by mid-year.

“GCCM applauds the initiative and the overall vision of the Academy. We look forward to the benefits the academy will bring to the Marine & Marina Industries and commit to being a key part of its success bolstering the numbers of skilled and qualified young persons, coming into the industry” says Andrew Chapman, GCCM’s COO. “It is certainly the number one priority area that all businesses in the marine and marina industry are looking at right now and whatever we can do, with the BIA, partner associations, and industry groups to support this, is a step in the right direction.”