Originally Posted by BUP

Really do not know how to write this other than saying - Out in the boating public I do not have a huge a name but in certain marine industries I have a huge name. On the marine technicians side, I am involved with a lot going on within that mainstream of the industry as a whole. I have made friends with a lot of the OEM engines manufacturers plus we talk shop all the time at least weekly thru out the year.

Our work force in general does not have a great record to chose from and in the marine side it is 100 ten times worse. All the skilled labor is getting older including myself to crawl all over / around boats plus your old school craftsmanship hands on employee is not common like it use to be.

The Marine trade schools basically are a huge joke and very rarely produce a skilled marine tech. (MMI, Wyo-tech and a few others). The current marine technology that is coming about is changing very quickly and needs skilled trained personal to set it up, work on, fix and make newer advancements. This field is wide open and someone could write their own ticket. I wish I was younger to specialize in this.

The Marine OEM's know this and plus the know they will be in huge trouble down the road because they have no gene pool to pull from to even work on the stuff that is currently out on the market. We talk about this all the time, more so now than ever. Soon even outboard marine engines will have catalyst convertors in them just for an example of whats coming down the pipe.

What a young person needs to do is specialize in one or a couple of fields of this current tech and stay with it, plus keeping up with the changes & advancements. You can not specialize in all marine related engines and electronics as it would be impossible to keep up with everything. Pick a segment of it and learn it forward and backwards. IMO you might be able to write your ticket down the road.