A light summer breeze brushes past the guardrail. Lesley Southwick of the MAST (Marine and Specialized Technologies) Academy of New Zealand takes a few steps across the large deck. You can see for miles out to sea from up here. The boat under construction at A.F. Theriault & Son is about five stories tall. Almost eye-level with the clouds.
"I've been in the industry for a while now," Lesley commented after her visit, "and I've never seen a view from a ship like that."
The NSBA recently welcomed Lesley from New Zealand, where she is Learning, Development & Marketing Manager of the MAST Academy of New Zealand. The NSBA's Boat Builder apprenticeship curriculum is licensed from New Zealand. Lesley sits on "quite a few review groups" to ensure the usefulness and appropriateness of the training material, both in New Zealand and in Nova Scotia.
Lesley is visiting Nova Scotia to get a sense of what's going on here with boat building and apprenticeships, and how our industry compares to that of New Zealand. "We've had a longstanding licensing agreement for the boatbuilding training resources and qualification with Nova Scotia's Boatbuilders Association, so this visit was to reconnect," she says,"to go through and see what else we needed to do to improve and what other opportunities there might be to take the relationship forward." She has learned alot.
"It helped confirm what we need to endorse for Nova Scotia," she says, "and how MAST may be able to support NSBA in further developing micro credentials to address skill shortages in specific areas or work with youth," says Lesley. Micro credentials are bite-sized chunks of learning, she explains, that can stack toward an apprenticeship qualification. They can be completed to make progress in an apprenticeship or to recognize current skills. Micro credentials could make the overall process of becoming certified simpler and easier.
The types of boats being built differ between countries as well. "In New Zealand we build far more pleasure boats," she says, "and not as many commercial boats. That's what we'd call your fishing boats or ferries...you have quite a big marine servicing technicians kind of business as well." While the fishery is active and important in New Zealand, "we do a lot of aquaculture and coastal fishing where we don't need as many large offshore boats" notes Lesley. Business tilts toward pleasure craft these days. Only 0.5% of total spending on new builds is on commercial boats. "Having said that," says Lesley, "New Zealand currently has 4 EV ferries bring built, due for launch early 2025."
The materials boat builders use often here are different too. "In New Zealand we don't do a lot of boat building in steel," says Lesley, "but you do quite a bit in steel." The curricula in the future will reflect that.
Lesley visited various shops around Nova Scotia, from large operations like A.F. Theriault and Son to the small family-run Big Pond Boat Shop. She saw boats in different stages of builds, in metal, wood and composites and was impressed with the range of boats being built across Nova Scotia.
Along the way she enjoyed the surroundings. Nova Scotia and New Zealand are somewhat alike, she points out, but in New Zealand there isn't so much forest. The beautiful Atlantic Ocean, she says, is "actually a different colour blue" from the Pacific.
One day Nova Scotian boat builders might even travel to New Zealand, and vice versa, to enrich the knowledge and skills of boat builders in both nations. "We'd like to grow our partnership with NSBA and potentially have an exchange program," says Lesley. Boat builders and apprentices from Nova Scotia could visit New Zealand to learn and explore, and New Zealanders would come here to do the same. There may even be a school where skills and knowledge can be practiced and learned: MAST will open a campus in 2025 where "we will be delivering pre trade courses initially," says Lesley. The hope is to increase opportunities for people interested in joining the boat building industry, so they can become a part of this creative, traditional work. It's a dream shared by many. "We're trying to engage youth a lot more," says Lesley, "and that's something we can work on together."
"It was really beneficial for me to go around all the different boatyards," says Lesley, "it was a great trip, and I got a lot out of it."
The NSBA would like to thank A.F. Theriault & Son Ltd., Big Pond Boat Shop, Bayview Marine Ltd., CME Sambro, Tern Boatworks, The Boat Shop, Shining Waters Marina and ABCO for welcoming Lesley Southwick and providing insights.
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