Website launched to fill soaring marine jobs demand

The move to create the Marine Jobs website, an online career hub aimed at making it much easier for employers to advertise jobs and recruit workers, is an initiative of the Marina Industries Association, the Boating Industry Association, and Superyacht Australia.

The group said the new industry jobs platform provided a range of career resources, including information on apprenticeships and industry training, writing a resume and preparing for an interview.

Employers, meanwhile, can post to a jobs board in a similar way to how they would have on more traditional jobseeking platforms. Meanwhile, jobseekers can post their resume to the website and choose which potential employers can see it.

“Until now there hasn’t been a single recruitment website that the marine industry could go to and find every job available in the marine sector,” Marina Industries Association director  Suzanne Davies said.

“Using generic [jobseeking] platforms is completely unsatisfactory, and often results in literally hundreds of unqualified applications to sift through,” she said.

Why the superyachts involvement? According to Superyacht Australia chief executive David Good, Australians are highly sought-after on the international circuit, representing around one in four – or around 14,000 – of all international crew.

“It is important that this experience is not completely lost to the marine industry when they decide to return home to Australia,” Good said.

“Marine Jobs will be able to connect these experienced seafarers to marine employers, so this experience is harnessed back into the Australian marine industry.”

Australia’s boating industry is booming, with orders for new boats creating pent-up demand at factories.

Earlier this year, Gold Coast-based luxury motor yacht maker Riviera took on its 800th employee as it regroups to meet an order book that stretches out almost three years. Earlier this month, it had 57 separate builds in progress.