Chantiers de l’Atlantique has inaugurated a new training facility for the next generation of shipbuilders. The new school is based in a 450 square meter building. Said Laurent Castaing, general manager of the Saint-Nazaire shipyard, in a prepared statement: “The school’s mission is to attract talent and to sustain the know-how of Chantiers de l’Atlantique.”

The school is fully funded by the yard with an investment of more than one million euros and offers training courses in carpentry, welder and pipefitter trades, for which the job market is not sufficient to cover the recruitment needs of the company.

The target is to train about 50 students a year.

Since Oct. 7, the first eight students have already been undergoing job-specific training.

The staff is composed shipyard employees and have themselves undergone training as teachers. Each has from 10 to 20 years of shipbuilding experience.

“It is equally important to train the trainers who will promote our spirit and work quality requirement, as well as sharing our values,” emphasized Castaing.

The participants in the work-study program contracts for 455 hours of training, spread over one year.

The emphasis is on practical experience with 80 percent of the time dedicated to hands-on work. After six weeks at the school, trainees move into the workshops.

A session for welder training, for which the recruitment process is already underway, will begin late January, followed by a second group of carpenter and metal workers in March, and a second group of welders in September. Meanwhile, a pipefitter program is being developed.