Looking back, moving forward 2022
Welcome to 2022! Over the Christmas break, Team NauticEd looked back at what we accomplished this past year – and we even shocked ourselves at what was achieved. It’s obvious that we were working too hard and should have been sailing more. But the big winners are NauticEd students, NauticEd Schools and Instructors, the entire sailing education industry at large, and yacht charter companies because we’re helping people get qualified to charter, explore, and discover the deep blue.
2021 NauticEd Accomplishments | Looking Back
Goals & Experience
Seeing that almost every student was openly already telling us their sailing goals, we decided to ask them their experience so we could truly customize their experience on our site. We realized that a person who wants to sail or take a sailing vacation with no experience is a vastly different student than one who has lots of experience.
Now, knowing a student’s goals and previous experience we can direct them to the proper course material and the proper on-the-water training. Fully 90% of students now tell us their sailing goals and experience through our simple Navigator tool. This means that NauticEd students are having a customized experience on our site with properly recommended courses.
Few internet websites go this far to serve their customers.
Practical Training Pages
Now every practical training Rank has a dedicated practical training standards page. Schools and instructors can link to these pages which gives the student a good understanding of what they will be trained on when doing on-the-water training with an instructor.
See the Practical Pages
At the bottom of the practical pages is a contact us form that is branded to the referring training school or instructor website. The contact form parameters are emailed to the school or instructor and the student is auto associated to their business for proper and prompt follow-up.
*New Course* Introduction to Sailing Course
We’re excited about the new course “Introduction to Sailing”, which is a 4-hour online simple basics course. It is similar in content to ASA’s 101 and US Sailing’s Basic Keelboat. It’s for those who are really just getting started in sailing or want to knock sailing of their bucket list. For those who want to continue on further, they can take either one of the Skipper courses. Introduction to Sailing is not a prerequisite for any other course.
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Student Guide
We launched a highly branded glossy Student Guide PDF to showcase to prospective students the NauticEd offering for theory and practical training. It gives a good rundown of sailing certifications and licenses that NauticEd issues as well as NauticEd’s strong philosophy of competence training.
Have you seen the Student Guide yet?
Certificate of Achievement vs Competence
We believe that competence comes from theory knowledge, practical skills, and experience. Thus, we strengthened our focus on reporting Competence when it is earned and demonstrated. Now, when students pass online courses, they get a Certificate of Achievement. Then, when students go on to pass a skills assessment on-the-water – and list an appropriate amount of experience – they gain a Certificate of Competence.
iFrame Student Signup
We created a tool whereby you schools and instructors can build a small iFrame that embeds on their site. Potential students can enter their email address on the school or instructor site to gain two free courses – they stay on their site but are entered into the NauticEd database and sent two free courses AND they are associated to the school or instructor and visible in their dashboard.
Schools and Instructors can learn about iFrame under their Digital Marketing Link when they signin.
Instructor Recruiting Campaign
Recognizing that there is a global shortage of quality instructors, in December 2021 we launched a campaign to recruit instructors and have already received over 50 applications. Our first priority is to fill uncovered watery territories. Then we can back fill existing schools to help alleviate the shortage. If you’d like to be a part time sailing instructor and work you own hours.
Nationwide Marketing & Public Relations
We launched nationwide advertising and PR campaigns – and were published in several key magazines. This includes a new ‘newsroom’ page to showcase NauticEd to the press and provide press resources.
See the NauticEd Press page
At the same time we launched a new page ‘about NauticEd’ and our incredible team. See the NauticEd AboutUs page.
Kid’s Cancer | Giving Back
Kids should be going sailing not going through cancer. Unfortunately, NauticEd coined this phrase because of our own Global Director of Education – Grant Headifen’s daughter Alexandra is currently journeying through brain cancer which was diagnosed this past year.
NauticEd make a large donation to helping solve kids cancer and has made solving Kids Cancer a major philanthropic program now for NauticEd. Pretty soon students will also be able to contribute at the check-out cart on the NauticEd Website each time a course is purchased. Sailing is such a family sport, and we want to provide the opportunity for families to help solve his travesty.
Additional 2021 Enhancements
Full Sail into 2022 | Moving Forward
As you look through this above, we hope that you can see what an amazing team of talent we have on board at NauticEd – all working for students’ sailing competence on the water.
Moving forward in 2022, we are kicking the year off with a stronger than ever marketing campaign to take advantage of the smart digital marketing plans and software we developed. And through-out the year, you will see more amazing developments from the NauticEd team.
Stay tuned, and we wish you well for 2022.
Grant Headifen
Global Director of Education
