Alameda’s Bay Ship & Yacht has embarked on an ambitious program to improve its training procedures by partnering with the College of Alameda.
Alameda’s Bay Ship & Yacht will begin a collaboration with the College of Alameda this year to provide specialized training classes in maritime painting techniques. This is intended to be the first of a variety of courses they plan to offer in the future. Photo by David Allen courtesy of Bay Ship and Yacht
By Chris Rochette
Published: February, 2015
Alameda’s Bay Ship & Yacht has embarked on an ambitious program to improve its training procedures by partnering with the College of Alameda. The program, modeled after a similar effort undertaken by a Seattle shipyard, provides both employees and students with substantial hands-on benefits.
Last year, Bay Ship & Yacht employees Juan Sr. Rodriguez and Dinah Swanson visited Vigor Shipyard in Seattle. Vigor is located on Harbor Island across from Seattle and boasts an epic waterfront view not unlike the view from Bay Ship & Yacht’s Alameda shipyard. During the visit, Rodriguez and Swanson worked directly with shipyard personnel, getting a very comprehensive tour of the entire facility and talking with people from several departments. They were also able to visit several other ship repair and machine shop facilities in the Seattle area.
During a second visit to Seattle, more representatives from Bay Ship & Yacht—this time accompanied by visitors from the College of Alameda—got an in-depth look at South Seattle College, a local community college. Similar to the College of Alameda, South Seattle College is located near the shipyard and is a perfect place for future (and current) shipyard employees to learn. After getting to know both the shipyard and the school, it was obvious to Bay Ship & Yacht that the two institutions have a very effective relationship. As an example, South Seattle College actually hosts welder training at Vigor Shipyard. In the process, students not only learn the theory behind welding, but also have shipyard experts show them how what they are learning will be applied on the job.
Both Vigor Shipyard and the South Seattle College were extremely accommodating and provided much useful information about their programs. Although the program at Vigor Shipyard has only been open for about 18 months, it has already shown how effectively a school can work with a shipyard to provide good training. Also, the program at Vigor was itself modeled after a program at another shipyard in Portland. The program in Portland has been going on for nearly seven years and has also demonstrated what a successful relationship between a shipyard and school could look like.
After the two visits to Seattle, Bay Ship & Yacht was able to conceive exactly what it could do in collaboration with the College of Alameda, which is less than two miles down the road. Bay Ship & Yacht then made the decision to engage in a partnership with the goal of helping to improve the availability of shipyard training to Bay Ship & Yacht’s current and future employees.
Although the official partnership between Bay Ship & Yacht and the College of Alameda is very new, a lot of work has already been made towards hosting the pilot class. Although the long-term goal of the program is to have a variety of maritime-related courses, the initial class will be an industrial/maritime painter course. The curriculum was developed using material that has been time-tested at Bay Ship & Yacht over several years of in house training. Peter Ha, the instructor for the upcoming class, has already started working directly with the senior members of the Paint Department at Bay Ship & Yacht to get a strong understanding of what painters will be required to do after completing the course.
Additionally, a kick-off date for September 2015 has been established for the first class. The course will be an intensive four-week program that will help prepare students for a career in the maritime painting business. Not only will it provide students with informative lecture, but it will also provide hands-on paint application training.
All of this was formally recognized in a memorandum of understanding that was signed earlier this month in Alameda. The official signing of the memorandum took place during a short, well-coordinated event commemorating the new partnership.
Employees at Bay Ship & Yacht during a quality-control training class for painters. Photo by Chris Rochette
