Azimut-Benetti Group has created a Corporate Academy business school to train yacht industry professionals. The Azimut-Benetti Group Corporate Academy both supports the professional growth of its employees, while also offering training across in-demand roles to generate new jobs.

Targeting current and future employees, the school has four main chapters. The Shipyard Academy and Executive Academy provide upskilling, reskilling and executive education for employees, the Development & Career Path offers multiple internal growth paths, while Education and Guidance Projects are focused on students.

As well as developing technical, handcrafting managerial expertise, the Academy offers education and guidance projects set up in partnership with vocational training agencies, secondary education institutes and universities.

Marco Valle, CEO of Azimut-Benetti Group, said: “We are at the forefront of a growing industry in which Italy leads the world rankings and that’s always looking for specialists to recruit. Our Group employs some of the world’s top professionals and our network of partners and suppliers is second to none, making it both a responsibility and a privilege to share this heritage to create new opportunities for people inside and outside the company.”

The shipyard area is the focus of the Shipyard Academy, which has been set up in partnership with the Turin-based training organisation Fondazione Casa di Carità Arti e Mestieri as part of the Innovative and Sustainable Integrated Mobility Academy promoted by Regione Piemonte and launched on June 5.

The courses – over 18,000 hours of training – will promote continuous improvement, valuing and strengthening of skills required by the company to train highly specialised professionals in the techniques of bodywork production, carpentry, outfitting, and mechanical and hydraulic assembly.

Santi Carlino, Chief People & ICT Officer of Azimut-Benetti Group, said: “The Shipyard Academy has been created to focus on homo faber (Latin for ‘man the maker’) and the ability to create and build, celebrating both the craftsmanship that’s an integral part of the production process and the great professionalism of our workforce, which has always been one of the company’s distinctive features.”

Also beginning this summer are the courses offered by the Executive Academy, designed to ensure the supervision, spread and development of the company’s business culture by promoting the values of talent and professionalism.

Receiving a total of more than 28,000 hours of training, Azimut-Benetti Group managers will take part in leadership development programmes designed to strengthen their skills in the areas of communication and listening, people management and decision making. The training path will also include classes on specific requirements such as the customer experience in the luxury industry.

Carlino added: “The Executive Academy offers our managers specific training activities identified by needs analysis processes as essential to achieve our strategic change management and organisational development objectives. The programme aims to boost the skills needed to excel in business.”

According to La Nautica in Cifre (Yachting Facts and Figures), the study published by Italian yacht industry trade body Confindustria Nautica in September 2022, the yacht sector contributed over €5 billion to Italian GDP in 2021, up 31.4 per cent on 2020. Total employees rose 9.7 per cent, with a peak of 14.7 per cent in new builds.

This article was first published on Yacht Style.