Year 11: Work Experience
Work Experience Reflection
Beau Staines
For the last couple of terms I’ve been fortunate enough to have been involved in the INSTEP work experience program at a boat-building firm called Kirby Marine, who build Naiads, a form of rigid inflatable boats as long as 13m which also have aluminium hulls. They are situated in the heart of Henderson, so it was a bit of a pain getting down there, but was definitely well worth it.
This program aims to send students out once a week (usually Wednesdays). Although it’s only one day a week it has certainly provided me with an opportunity to extend my skills. At Kirby Marine, I mainly spent my time in the upholstery shed, where they stick the inflatable tubing to the hulls of the boats. They also do all the finishing touches to the boats and send them out to their owners once completed. The tasks I did were pretty boring to start with, such as emptying bins and sweeping floors, but I wasn’t bothered because I still had the opportunity to see and experience how the people build these things and, trust me, it was amazing. For my first day, I was fortunate to go out on one of the boats for a test run which was awesome! It was also great to make some contacts with people in the industry.