Surely you’ve heard of the PYA G.U.E.S.T. accreditation by now.!?!

Guidelines for Unified Excellence in Service Training (GUEST©).

 

This is the Professional Yachting Association’s Industry Standard for Interior Crew Training and Certification (known as ICTC). 

 

Interior yacht crew play a vital and fundamental role as the front line interface with owners and guests: their job is to ensure that top level service and hospitality are provided onboard. Until now there has been little formal training available for this role and, furthermore, the training that does exist has varied widely in both objectives and standards. The GUEST© initiative unifies these different approaches.

 

Deck and engineering crew have long benefited from a clearly defined scheme, based on formal study and work experience, for achieving certification, but, until now, no such scheme has been available to interior crew.

This career structure for interior crew is based on a combination of work experience and formal training.  Each level of qualification, from Introduction Level, through Operational Level and onto Management Level is achieved by combining time spent with working for guests onboard with formal study.  In this way, a comprehensive industry standard for the training of interior crew has been created.

 

The PYA, a professional body for all yacht crew, established a Work Group to carry out a consultation process that includes a wide range of industry professionals:- Captains, Chief Stewardesses and Chief Stewards, Sommeliers, Charter Agents, Crew Agents, Training Providers and the PYA’s own Continuous Professional Development Team. This Work Group has established a clear career path for Interior Crew Training and Certification. The result of this effort is the Guidelines for Unified Excellence Service Training (GUEST©).  GUEST© has been created by the Superyacht industry for the Superyacht industry.

 

ICTC is a formal structure for the training and certification of interior crew working on large yachts. This structure has been developed in close consultation with all the stakeholders: Interior Crew; Captains; Training Providers; Charter Agents and Crew Agencies.

 

Benefits to the individual are Continuous Professional Development.  This can only benefit the crew as a whole.  However most important are benefits felt by owners and guests.  These should be the most profound.

 

 

In March 2013, a representative from the Professional Yachting Association, Joey Meen, visited Sydney to evaluate ASCT’s Steward course.  This was to ensure that ASCT’s standards of training met the standards and criteria for G.U.E.S.T. accreditation.  The outcome was that ASCT was able to demonstrate a high quality of training, which encompassed the necessary elements.  This means that prospective ASCT Steward students can be confident that they have embarked on a new career with professional standards and a defined career path.

 

Now students of Australian Superyacht Crew Training have the best possible credentials on their CV and therefore the advantage when searching for jobs in the Superyacht industry.  ASCT is now at the forefront of training in Australia

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For information about the levels of training in your career path please follow this link: INTERIOR CREW TRAINING CERTIFICATION route: www.pya.org/publicdocs/ictc-careerplan.pdf

 

For further information please call Donna Morris, Director of ASCT (Australian Superyacht Crew Training). Ph:  +61 (0)410 689288 or email to Crew@SuperyachtCrew.com.au