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Careers & DoD SkillBridge
22-week Marine Service Technician program
We employ more than 30 people across two yards on the Salish Sea, and we train most of them ourselves. If you want to learn a marine trade properly rather than pick it up in fragments, this is a place that will teach you.
Official DoD SkillBridge partner
Essential Shipyard Industries is an approved Department of Defense SkillBridge partner. Transitioning service members can spend their final months of service training with us — at no cost to the participant, and with no cost to the unit.
The 22-week Marine Service Technician program
Our SkillBridge program runs 22 weeks with an electrical and electronics emphasis, combining Essential Shipyard University coursework with supervised on-the-job training in a working yard. You are not shadowing. You are working on customers’ boats alongside qualified technicians, to a written standard, with your competence signed off as you go.
Most participants who complete the program are offered full-time employment. That is the point of it — we run SkillBridge because it is the most reliable way we have found to hire good marine technicians.
Why marine trades, and why here
Marine service is short of trained people everywhere, and the Pacific Northwest is no exception. The skills transfer directly from military electrical, mechanical and engineering roles, and the work is varied enough that nobody is doing the same job twice: electrical and lithium systems, engine repowers, composites and structural repair, fabrication and joinery, and composite manufacturing.
And there is a barbecue in the middle of the boatyard on Fridays. It is not a benefit anyone lists, but it is a fair description of how the place runs.
How to apply
SkillBridge enquiries and general applications both go to Emily Knott at emily@essentialshipyard.com, or call (360) 610-7577. Tell us what you have done and what you want to learn — we will tell you straight whether we can teach it.
Related services
Free for every customer
A complimentary 18-point inspection
An expert technician tests the boat’s systems and writes up every point as Excellent, Good, Monitor, Attention or Critical — a written report telling you what is sound, what to keep an eye on, and what has to be dealt with before she goes back in the water. Free with every job.
EXCELLENT
GOOD
MONITOR
ATTENTION
CRITICAL
Essential Shipyard 