HELP! Career advice for 19 year-old

[Jeffers]

Hello, I’ve been landlocked for over 25 years near Heidelberg, Germany. I spent my youth on Long Island Sound near Mystic, Connecticut, where my father and siblings sporadically crewed on the 100’ Schooner “Mystic Whaler”. Since working in Germany, our family vacations always take us to the Med, usually Italy on campsites with dinghies or Cats to rent. Our son, now 19, has got the bug. He will be a Camp Counsellor for the YMCA for the third time this year, teaching sailing. He followed every minute of Alinghi’s successes on TV, and, just for fun, he spent 4 days crewing on a Bruce Farr 50’er in a race from Cowes to Dieppe across the English Channel. He will finish the German “Abitur” (College Prep High-School) this year with strong points Physics, Chemistry, and Math. He is fluent in German and English and has a bit of French and Italian. He could go straight into Engineering at any German University, but he is sick and tired of learning at a desk, and wants a break year.

We are stuck, and have nobody to consult about careers in sailing / Naval engineering. After weeks and weeks of web surfing, we still have questions about what it’s really like out there in the job world. These are some of the things our son could image doing to earn his living:

1. Taking a 3-month course to get his RYA Yachtmaster Offshore qualifications. We’ve studied all of the schools very thoroughly, uksa, flying fish, UKSail and so on. It’s not clear to us what employment opportunities (and what pay) are open to graduates of these courses.

2. Starting a “fast-track” boat building / design course like the Landing School in Maine. What employment opportunities does that bring?

3. After a break year working, starting to study engineering where sailing is available; Kiel, Germany or Southampton, England or the U.S.A.?? For someone who thrives on fresh air, is this really worth the effort?

I hope these lines find a reader who has “been there, done that”, and would take the time to pass on some tips.
We will be very appreciative. jeff.haigh@web.de


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[Rowana]

how about -

<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.itv.com/page.asp?partid=1016>http://www.itv.com/page.asp?partid=1016</A>

After that, how about studying marine engineering or naval architecture?

I would suspect, but I cant say for sure, that the schools you mention churn out loads of "zero to hero" yachtmasters, and the job opportunities are slim with loads of competition.

I'd go for a degree in naval architecture if it was me. After all, somebody has to design all the new yachts, and with several european languages, it could be just the thing. Suggest you do a bit of research with some of the design houses.

Good luck with whatever he chooses.

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[Jeremy_W]

>>>I would suspect, but I cant say for sure, that the schools you mention churn out loads of "zero to hero" yachtmasters, and the job opportunities are slim with loads of competition.

There is plenty of competition, but anyone who can offer youth, three foreign languages, the initiative to get themselves a place on a racing Farr 50 and genuine mechanical aptitude would be ahead of the game. The training at UKSA is, from all accounts, excellent. Salaries on the bottom rung of the ladder are, I hear, appalling but a whole lot better than being a student accumulating debt.




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[Prospero]

My daughter did a degree in Naval Architecture at Newcastle sponsored by the MOD. on finishing at Newcastle she joined MOD and went to UCL to do a Masters in Warship Design. Did some fleet time and also at The Australian Boat Co - builders of submarines. She still enjoys it eleven years after leaving school. Her gap year was spent at Manadon, then the RN engineering College, 6 females and lots of young officers! The courses are interesting and sponsorship helps a lot Good luck in whatever he chooses the main thing is to enjoy it.>

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[Peppermint]

Re: Beware

The quick yachtmaster course will get him qualified. It'll cost you about £7000.
He will then have no trouble getting employment with a Flottila Holiday company. (I suspect he may me multi-lingual so he'll be in demand) This is a fine opportunity to mix with a wide variety of young people from all over the world, go sailing, and drink beer, lots of beer. It's lowly paid work but the team element, sunshine and sailing leads to addiction. If you can get him back to college after that, well done.

That being said it's not all bad, he'll be happy and one young lad I know now earns $100,000 pa running a big charter yacht in Australia & Asia. He's about 24 years so it's good money.

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[kesey]

see private message: click on the litle flashing icon to the left of "Main Index".


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[Badger]

Agree that a year out sailing with UKSA or on of the others would be a lot of fun despite all the negative comments people get about zero to hero.As far as enginering goes, if you put an engine on a launch slip and smash a bottle of champagne over it the next sound you will hear is glug,glug,glug......... Naval Architect would seem to be the thing.As a surveyor for a ship classification society like Lloyds Register of Shipping, your son would get to work all over the world and mainly outdoors and get in lots of sailing as well. Good Luck and enjoy it.

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