More than 800 young people descended on the Yacht Club de Monaco on Saturday 21st March for the first ever Yachting Student Fair — a new initiative designed to open up the maritime and yachting professions to a generation that, organisers say, remains largely unaware of the career opportunities the sector offers.

The fair formed the opening chapter of the inaugural Monaco, Capital of Advanced Yachting Rendezvous, a four-day event organised by the Yacht Club de Monaco in collaboration with The Explorers Club of New York. It was supported by Monaco’s Department of Education, Youth and Sports and Monaco City Hall.

Students from middle school through to graduate level moved between around 20 stands covering a wide range of maritime careers — from naval architecture and boat maintenance to port operations, underwater work, yachting management and brokerage. YCM’s La Belle Classe Academy presented its own training modules on service, sustainability and brokerage, and visitors were invited aboard yachts moored in the marina throughout the day.

Minister of State Christophe Mirmand attended and spoke of the fair’s potential to become a fixture in Monaco’s educational calendar. “This is a wonderful opportunity to discover that the vocations being presented can help build life paths,” he said. “I believe this is also the ambition of the event, which I hope will become an annual meeting to help achieve that objective.”

The Yachting Student Fair is the latest expression of YCM’s broader ambition under its ‘Monaco, Capital of Advanced Yachting’ initiative — to position the Principality not only as a destination for the world’s finest yachts, but as a centre for maritime education, innovation and ocean science.

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Photo source: YCM