Working on a superyacht is a great thing to do; it is a career with training, great opportuniities and good money. You see the world (kind of) and your fellow crew are super nice (the majority are). The old industry phrase living the dream. is often quoted by many experienced professional crew who will no-doubt add a stream of comments to the above.
The reality is that that working on a superyacht is not easy.
The owners & guests can be very nice but they can also be very difficult to deal with. When the guests or/and owners are on-board the hours are long, the work schedule hectic, the requests and demands can be unreasonable. The interior crew who have to directly deal with the guests and owners day-in, day-out, are often stressed-out and overtired during a long season. And then there is the downtime which can run into months of inactivity where the boat is at anchor or on-the-dock. Refits are done then, some refits go well, others don’t.
The superyacht crew, generally speaking, are very professional but when things do go wrong on-board, whether it be cabin-fever sets in or a charter goes wrong or crew breakdown or crew are dismissed instantly for often no-good reason, then the crew do their best to cope often with impossible situations. This is where professionalism and formality takes over and this is what the IYM Cosmopolitan Steward/ess ™ Courses & Certification are all about.
The iymcs Cosmopolitan Steward/ess ™ caters for the needs of professional interior crew at all levels. In effect, this means that the course can be made relevant to the working practices or to the types of boats that the student or candidate is working-on currently or maybe working on in the future. There are two levels, namely:
Level I – is for the Steward/ess’s who either have been working for one year and would like to improve their skills and knowledge; or for the Steward/ess’s who have never worked on a super-yacht before and would like to gain the basic skills and knowledge.
Level II – is for the Steward/ess’s who have been working for at least two years as interior crew and are now looking to step-up into a management role, such as a Chief Steward or Chief Stewardess, or as a purser on the larger yachts over 70 metres.
Furthermore, the Society has added a second parameter to the courses, called Options 1-4. Wherever possible, these Options are there to adapt the syllabus of the course to the needs of either the student or candidate or of the yacht that they are employed on. The reasons for this are:
| i. That the interior crew working practices vary considerably from one yacht to the next. | ii. The working practises on a 35 metre yacht are very different to the working practices of a 60 metre yacht. | iii. Influence of the Owner/s demands, the nationality of the regular guests and geopolitical factors. | iv. The requests from; the Captain or the Chief Steward/ess or the departmental heads. | v. To cater for on-board training. |
The four options are shown below:
The course consists of two parts;
i. Classroom or on-board theory course.
ii. Classroom or on-board practical course & exercises.
Key features to consider:
- Up-to-date syllabus incorporating working practices of the Superyachts.
- The syllabus written by professional superyacht crew.
- Adaptable syllabus for the size and type of boat.
- A great looking certification with complete details of training undertaken, ideal for presentation at job interviews and for crew agencies.
- Training can be undertaken on-board or in class.
- Incorporates multi-role tasks such as deck work & watchkeeping support (depending on the option chosen).
- Safe working practices are covered.
The IYM Cosmopolitan Steward/ess™ level I course is a great course for new crew and for crew that have just done one season.
What is this?
Our Society, the International Yacht Master Certification Society (IYM) operates its entire operations under a Quality Management System (QMS) that is in compliance with the International Standards Organisation (ISO) 9001:2015 amended. Part of this compliance involves full auditing procedures.
This is an important reference and enables us to gain recognitions from maritime admininstrations and marine industry bodies alike. The QMS together with the ISO, ensures that IYM and its Members operate to the highest standards possible. All our courses, and more importantly the Certifications that we issue, are under ISO 9001:2015.
This practise is most unusual for such courses and certifications. Some organisations will claim ISO:9001 adherence but often the reality is the ISO compliance is for a very small number of their courses..
How much does the course cost?
The following are the recommended IYM course prices (ex.VAT), prices may fluctuate between Member schools & colleges.
| Scandinavia 900,-EUR | Northern Europe 850,-EUR | United Kingdom 650,-GBP |
| Southern Europe 725,-EUR | Middle East 725,-USD | North America 600,-USD |
| Prices exclude: course books,certification costs,personal travelling costs,course food and course accommodation. | ||
