
New Maritime Career Trade School Opens on Mare Island
A new maritime trade school has come to life on Mare Island in Vallejo. The first class just graduated, and they’re now recruiting for the second intake to start in January. The recently formed Working Waterfront Coalition opened the maritime training school to help recruit and train new tradespeople for maritime careers.
We spoke with Bill Elliott, owner of Svendsen’s Bay Marine and founder of Bay Ship & Yacht, and Working Waterfront Coalition (WWC) project director Sal Vaca, who relayed the massive need for skilled hands in both the commercial and recreational maritime industries. For Bay Area sailors, this initiative hopes to reduce the worker shortage that has made it difficult to find the skilled tradespeople necessary for work on recreational sailboats. They also hope to find people who grew up sailing, who’d like to roll up their sleeves and find careers in the marine trades.

Local shipyards, ports and ferry companies have all expressed a need for trained workers as older workers retire. The school was founded by Bobby Winston, a founder of the WETA ferry system, with the support of local marine businesses.
The WWC started recruiting students in July last year. The first class of 25 students started in the fall and has now graduated. The graduates are currently being placed in local waterfront jobs.

The school offers tracks for both shipyard work and transportation jobs such as onboard deckhands, mates and ship’s officers. The school is also working with the Inlandboatman’s Union, founded in 1918 to represent West Coast marine workers, to help fill the shoreside and on-the-water transportation positions. Between transportation and boatyard work they are training for roles in plumbing, electrical, painting, and welding, and as deckhands, mates and other transportation service workers.

Project director Sal Vaca said, “The training is provided to students at no cost through grants and fundraising for workforce development programs. Students also receive a stipend and help with transportation.”

Bill Elliott said, “The hands-on program gets workers up to speed quickly, allowing them to join the workforce in as little as six months. We already have a couple of graduates working in the shipyard.”
The school is hosting information sessions on Friday, January 3, for anyone interested in learning more about maritime careers.
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