Sponsors
National Historic Ships UK acknowledges the financial support of its sponsors
Boatbuilding - Full Time
Course Duration: 47 Weeks – £17,590 for 2024
Course runs Mon-Thurs 08.00-16.30, Fri 08.00-12.30
Don’t Just Learn to Build a Boat. Learn to be a Boatbuilder.
IBTC Lowestoft's award-winning boatbuilding course covers the skills required to build and maintain boats. With an emphasis on learning through practical application of skills you will work on a wide range of boatbuilding projects, under the expert supervision of our knowledgeable instructors in our working boatyard. Upon successful completion you will be awarded the internationally recognised and coveted IBTC Diploma in boatbuilding along with City and Guilds 2473 level 3.
High standards of accuracy and finish are set from the start and all students must successfully complete our joinery skills course, which depending on previous experience will take up to 15 weeks. You will then move into the boat shed and commence working on a variety of boatbuilding projects. You will work on a wide range of craft including new builds, restoration and renovation projects. All our boats have real owners ensuring the skills and knowledge you acquire are forged on real projects. We believe this is essential for students to become genuine boatbuilders.
Starting in January 2024, you will have the option of beginning our full-time course throughout the year. Our new flexible timetable will also mean that our course can be completed in blocks, perfect for fitting around other commitments you may have.
The IBTC Concept of Training Experience has shown that training opportunities limited to just two or three boats is totally insufficient – which is why the IBTC always has a wide variety of boats, both large and small, at different stages of construction at any one time. This ensures that there is always a boat available and at a stage which will enable trainees to build skills in a truly systematic and properly structured way. You do not have to wait for a boat to reach a certain stage of construction before you are able to move on, and you are always able to continue to the next stage of learning once you have satisfactorily completed each exercise. It is a very important concept of IBTC training that the boats built, repaired or restored as training exercises are only worked on whenever they present the opportunity for appropriately timed exercises for students. High standards of accuracy and finish are set from the start of each course. Our concept of training enables our students to cover and learn the wide range of skills in our training programme in the shortest time possible. It ensures, too, that by the end of their course, you will have the ability and confidence to build, repair or restore a boat. Almost all learning is through practical exercises, (learning by doing), with the essential knowledge element fed in by instructors at the relevant moment. This huge amount of practical experience is one of the many reasons why IBTC students remain head and shoulders above others.
Interested in our Boatbuilding course but not sure if you can commit for a whole year? Get in touch with us to discuss options for doing the course in agreed learning blocks over a timescale that suits you.
Bursaries of up to 50% are now open for UK citizens between the ages 18 to 40. To apply please fill in our bursary form.
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