Sunseeker

Sunseeker is one of the world’s most established brands for producing luxury performance motor yachts. The Dorset based company began in 1969 and has grown to become an industry leader. Sunseeker has stayed on top  of the competition by constantly evolving the design of their brand to produce the highest performing sea vessels for its customers. 

Sunseeker employ 2,000 people and produce over 150 boats annually with 98% being exported to over 74 countries. The Sunseeker fleet includes ocean faring crafts such as the Ocean 460 Superyacht; also performance based speed boats, notably the SuperHawk 55, focused on agility, handling and precision.

Within Sunseeker’s Design and Technology Centre in Poole, each boat generated entails a range of departments to work in unison to support production deadlines and to maintain high customer satisfaction rates. The organisation requires a high level of communication, collaboration and teamwork across all the different branches of the business such as: design & technology, manufacturing, retail and electrical engineering.

Due to the constant need for setting new standards and benchmarks within the naval engineering industry, Sunseeker reached out to Train Aid to arrange the delivery of an in-house Level 3 Award in Education & Training (L3 AET) course. The purpose of the training was for the warehouse supervisors to gain the trainer qualification in order to support its new apprenticeship scheme.  Additionally, to train new staff members to continue to uphold its outstanding reputation as a training provider.

The bespoke Level 3 Award in Education & Training (L3 AET) course was delivered over three consecutive Fridays, starting at 7am to support the learners’ shift work patterns. The team worked in collaboration to reflect on their current training provision and through group work and discussion identified avenues to seek out improvements for their development.

During the classroom course, the managers learnt a range of key training techniques such as: how to make an inclusive teaching and learning environment, creating lesson plans and how to use a wide variety of teaching resources to make lessons varied and interesting. As the Sunseeker fleet is constantly evolving annually due to design upgrades, the team analysed teaching and training methods to support its staff members achieve company goals.     

The assessment of the course encompasses three core units: Unit A- The roles & responsibilities of a teacher, Unit B: Inclusive Practice and Unit C: Assessment Methods. The first two days of the course cover the ‘input’ of the three units in full, with the class experiencing a range of activities such as: presentations, group work and discussions to share best practice and develop their practical teaching skills further. Each candidate was provided with a work pack, textbook and pen to make notes in order to complete the assignments post course.

The final day of the course required all candidates to deliver a 15 minute micro-teach lesson to their classmates. The purpose of this practical lesson is to highlight the learner’s teaching strengths and areas for development with feedback being provided by their peers and course tutor. The experience of the micro-teach lesson was incredibly valuable and the team will utilise their experiences within their future course teaching.

All shift managers successfully delivered and passed their micro-teach lesson on the penultimate day of the course.

The team completed their lesson observation work packs to provide peer feedback to three of their colleagues to highlight the strengths and areas for development

Some of the micro-teach topics included: an introduction to health & safety aboard boats, zwift indoor cycling and equestrian skills.

Post course, learners were provided with the resources to complete their three written assignments and to send these to the submissions team for review.

All of the team achieved their Level 3 Award in Education & Training certificates within attending one month of the three-day course.

The team at Sunseeker were fantastic, they showed dedication, commitment and teamwork to support each other through the micro-teach requirement and provide constructive peer feedback. Each candidate valued the training and explained how it would benefit their training role in their future practice.

Nick (Train Aid)