For Kenneth Grahame's Wind in the Willows characters there was nothing half so much worth doing as simply messing about with boats. The hundreds of thousands of people who spend their spare time on Port Phillip Bay, Sydney Harbour or inland waterways would agree.
Matt Petrie, a passionate fisherman and boatie, is one of them. So he was thrilled when, at age 16 and not interested in going to university, he turned that passion into an apprenticeship and a promising career with Melbourne boat-builder Evolution Boats.
Four years on, with experience in each of the processes involved in building the company's fibreglass fishing boats, he is completing his certificate III in marine craft construction and specialising in detailing and repairs.
"You are working on something different every day," Petrie says. "I like being able to help design and build new models. There is a great satisfaction when a customer comes in and picks up a well finished model."
But the organisation representing Victoria's marine industry believes too few of the young people passionate about boats and other watercraft realise there is a large marine industry offering good careers.
"There are enormous opportunities for young people, including girls, to enter the industry and have a fantastic career," says Steven Potts, chief executive of the Boating Industry Association of Victoria. "But the industry has not done a good job of showing that it is worth $4.5 million to the Victorian economy."
To help young people learn about the opportunities available, the association has launched its Boating and Marine Industry Careers Guide detailing 33 marine industry careers.
Potts says it has been distributed to career practitioners, including at schools, so they can help students choose from careers ranging from equipment retailing to boat dealerships and marine equipment manufacturing. It also specifies the qualifications involved.
There are already 17,700 Victorian jobs in the industry and he says employers are keen to take on more apprentices. "There are a lot of people who are passionate about boating who would love to work in the industry," Potts says. "Employers are interested in taking on young people, they are interested in training for the future.
"It's a very exciting time for us. The industry has reported the best sales they have had in recent years, showing a good return to confidence."
Potts says Australian training, a mix of on-the-job and institution-based learning, is well regarded overseas and many Australians are working interstate and internationally. So those who undertake an apprenticeship can work and travel later.
Petrie, who says his apprenticeship was "very hands-on", combined blocks of theory with practical training at his company's Bayswater headquarters. He met the company's manager at the annual Melbourne Boat Show. Mention of a forthcoming apprenticeship vacancy led to work experience, and then the apprenticeship.
He now plays and works with boats.
Potts concedes it's an industry which has been male dominated – 91 per cent of Victorian boaters are men and 80 per cent of industry workers are men, according to the 2014 boating census. And while the employment statistics do not yet represent the interest from many young girls in joining the industry, he is confident that is changing.
