Azimut Benetti Group trains the protagonists of tomorrow’s yachting world

Azimut|Benetti Group announces the creation of the Azimut|Benetti Group Corporate Academy, a business school designed to train top yacht industry professionals, with the dual aim of supporting the professional growth of its employees and of creating the roles most in demand in order to generate new jobs.  An initiative aimed at enhancing the merit and professionalism of current and future employees, which has always engaged the company's founder, Paolo Vitelli, and was strongly desired by Giovanna Vitelli in her first months as President of the Group.

The Azimut|Benetti Group Corporate Academy is the first in the yachting world to look at the industry as a whole, bringing a holistic approach to training and a teaching model that embraces technical know-how and handcrafting expertise, managerial development in addition to education and guidance projects set up in partnership with vocational training agencies, secondary education institutes and universities. It is an ambitious programme, based on sharing the values and skills that have put the Group at the top of the world ranking of superyacht producers for the last 23 years.

The training is structured in four action areas: the Shipyard Academy and the Executive Academy, which provide upskilling, reskilling and executive education for Group employees, the Development & Career Path, split into multiple internal growth paths, and lastly Education and Guidance Projects for students. Underlying all this is an awareness of the opportunities offered today by the yacht industry and of the role the company plays in this strategic segment for Italy:

“We are at the forefront of a growing industry in which Italy leads the world rankings and that is always looking for specialists to recruit. Our Group employs some of the world’s top professionals and our network of partners and suppliers is second to none, making it both a responsibility and a privilege to share this heritage in order to create new opportunities for people inside and outside the Yard,” commented Azimut|Benetti Group CEO Marco Valle.

According to La Nautica in Cifre (Yachting Facts and Figures), the study published by Italian yacht industry trade body Confindustria Nautica in September 2022, the sector contributed over €5 billion to Italian GDP in 2021, up 31.4% on 2020. Total employees rose 9.7%, with a peak of 14.7% in new builds.

The shipyard area is also the focus of the Shipyard Academy, which has been set up in partnership with Turin-based training organisation Fondazione Casa di Carità Arti e Mestieri di Torino as part of the Innovative and Sustainable Integrated Mobility Academy promoted by Regione Piemonte and launched officially on June 5, 2023. The courses – over 18,000 hours of training – will promote a culture of continuous improvement, valuing and strengthening the skills required by the company in order to train highly specialised professionals in the techniques of bodywork production, carpentry, outfitting, and mechanical and hydraulic assembly.

“The Shipyard Academy has been created to focus on ‘homo faber’ and the ability to create and build, celebrating both the craftsmanship that is an integral part of the production process and the great professionalism of our workforce, which has always been one of the company’s distinctive features,” explained Santi Carlino, Azimut|Benetti Group Chief People & ICT Officer.

Also beginning this summer are the courses offered by the Executive Academy, designed to ensure the supervision, spread and development of the Group’s business culture by promoting the values of talent and professionalism. Receiving a total of more than 28,000 hours of training, Azimut|Benetti Group managers will take part in leadership development programmes designed to strengthen their skills in the areas of communication and listening, people management and decision making. The training path will also include classes that focus on specific requirements, such as the customer experience in the luxury industry.

Santi Carlino added: “The Executive Academy offers our managers specific training activities identified by needs analysis processes as essential to achieve our strategic change management and organisational development objectives. The programme aims to boost the skills needed to excel in business”.

The two Academies are the natural continuation of the process of learning corporate values and skills that begins with onboarding and induction into the Group and takes the form of the professional growth plan for employees, which is structured in corporate career steps.

The Azimut|Benetti Group Corporate Academy extends the vocational education project launched by the company to attract young people to the yacht industry and facilitate their transition to the world of work. For a number of years, in fact, the Group has been working with professional schools to train specialists in the areas of carpentry, outfitting and bodywork, with secondary education institutes to implement skill adaptation strategies aimed at developing mechanical and naval study plans for training naval operators, with the maritime technical college to train young captains and crew, and with higher education institutes on activities ranging from the development of new technologies to induction and co-teaching.