Gulf Craft has opened a purpose-built in-house Yacht Manufacturing Training Centre at its Umm Al Quwain, UAE, shipyard.
The facility will provide more than 3,000 training hours a year, up-skilling new recruits and staff across the Majesty, Nomad, Oryx and SilverCAT brands.
The centre covers an area of 200sqm (2,153sqft), and can accommodate 30 trainees a week – about 350 graduates a year.
Centre facilities include a fully equipped classroom, six specialist workshops and three CAD labs that mirror production-line technology.
The new facility will provide training in five core boatbuilding disciplines – fibreglass and composite application, marine systems and smart electrical installations, precision luxury interiors and finishing, mechanical fitting and stainless-steel fabrication and digital design, CAD, CAM and production optimisation.
First-level certificate
Each new Gulf Craft joiner will complete 100 supervised shop-floor hours, earning an internal first-level certificate.
Master craftsmen will receive monthly refreshers and training on emerging technologies, while new supplier and academic partnerships will introduce cutting-edge materials and processes.
“In order to drive innovation acceleration, Gulf Craft is investing in becoming an even faster learning organisation,” explained Erwin Bamps, CEO of Gulf Craft.
“We have created our new employee training programs in response to today’s dynamic leisure marine market, which demands an agile manufacturing environment where highly trained and multi-skilled workers are essential.”
Gulf Craft is investing in becoming an even faster learning organisation.
Erwin Bamps
Kostas Christodoulou, chief technical officer, Gulf Craft, added: “Over the past four years Gulf Craft has delivered thousands of hours of advanced CAD and CAM training to its engineers and draftsmen.
“Every yacht we now build has a digital twin – an exact virtual replica used throughout design and production.
“To translate that precision into physical quality, we must equip each new craftsperson with the same advanced skills and give our master tradespeople continuous opportunities to refine theirs. Ultimately, a yacht’s quality is defined by the human touch.”
