For many this leads to a professional career, for others a chance to follow a dream for the sheer joy of building boats surrounded by like-minded enthusiasts and our expert tutors.
Since 1997 we have trained over 650 people in boat building. Many of these have gone on to work in the boat building industry across the UK and the world.
The course incorporates the City & Guilds Level 3 Diploma in Boatbuilding (Advanced). However, it goes far beyond the requirements of this qualification, providing comprehensive practical instruction in traditional and contemporary boat building construction methods and related skills.
The course is structured into two parts.
In the first half of the course, you will develop dedicated boat building skills and knowledge through the highly structured training programme. In the second half, your skills are further honed as you build boats from start to finish using both traditional and modern construction: gaining the skills that only hands-on experience will bring.
The highly practical environment enables students to take full advantage of our facilities and expertise of the tutors. The course is full-time, five days per week from 0830 to 1730. Each course has at least one dedicated tutor, with an aim of a minimum 40 hours of workshop time. All students are encouraged to work on several boats to give them a wide range of experience.
“I went from the BBA straight to a job at Spirit Yachts and then on to work in the Caribbean. At my current job in Canada the main issue has been getting enough trained people, and this has been the case at every place I have worked at in the past five years – everyone is crying out for boatbuilders. We have brought over five people who trained at the BBA to Vancouver.” – Luke Browne, 40-Week boat building graduate