- The boating practical program
as part of the marine course at Cairns State High School.
Students do theory work comprising of a work book
where they learn all about the safety and the rules
of taking a boat on the water,
and then they come out and do their practical component,
comprising of three days of training
and the third day of that is testing for a boat licence.
So in terms of the boating program, we rotate them through two types of vessel
so they do a tiller steer vessel and a steering-wheel forward-control boat.
So in terms of the forward-control boat,
we have the teacher there giving them one-on-one instruction.
And we normally split them into small groups.
They'll be two or three students who'll go out in the rescue boat, as well.
So we're endeavouring to train them in both types of vessels.
For international students, it's a great opportunity
to socialise with the Australian students,
learn a bit more about the culture. It's a real team effort
in terms of lifting boats, working together cooperatively.
In a lot of cases, they get put in a boat with another student
and the friendships that they make through the marine program
they maintain for a long time.
The international students really enjoy the boating experience,
mainly because they don't have this from the country they're coming from.
Many of them have never driven a boat before.
It provides them with skills that they can drive a boat anywhere in the world.
In terms of being able to drive a boat, it provides a lot of career pathways,
and Cairns being such a centre for marine tourism,
there's a lot of avenues for students to work as dive instructors,
so a lot of the international students do the boating program,
plus they learn to scuba dive. They may end up a scuba instructor
and driving boats out on the Great Barrier Reef.