Maine Maritime is advertising an employment opportunity for a Director of their planned Center for Professional Mariner Development, which will be in Bucksport.
Should be interesting to see if they can attract enough students to make this a viable business.
If they were smart they’d set it up in or near Portland. Much larger population and more options for hotels/ food/ etc. I’d imagine one of the other colleges in town would be willing to lease or share class space with them. Instead they’re setting up in the middle of nowhere.
Too late now.
They have already signed the dotted line to acquire the Bucksport property.
They will have to do something to set themselves apart from the other schools, and what exactly that is, I do not know.
I would rather take the classes in Lauderdale, all other things being equal.
What happened to the last guy? Artillery accident?
Buckport is sort of midway between Bangor and Castine. That is close enough to use existing Academy Faculty to teach classes without much hassle. At the same time not that far from the airport in Bangor.
So the gubbmint couldn’t keep GMATS open but Maine Maritime has the scratch to open a dedicated continuing education facility? I guess it will be popular with New Englanders at least.
I took all my gap closing courses and BST refresher at MMA. Quick, no bullshit, in and out.
It will be nicer to have their own firefighting facility rather than use the Ellsworth fire dept building.
It is my understanding that their classes are cancelled frequently due to not enough enrollment so unless that has changed recently I’m not sure how likely this is to work out.
More likely to be popular with just Mainers. Bangor/ Castine/ Bucksport are pretty deep into Maine. I’m only one state over and I’d likely go somewhere else for my revalidations.
The business plan would seem to be based on more than just Mainers or New Englanders.
From an article last year:
With 26,000 commercial mariners transiting the East Coast coastal and inland waterways at any given time, Maine Maritime Academy expects there will be a sizeable customer base for its new Center for Professional Mariner Development at the former Verso paper mill in Bucksport.
My gut tells me they are getting this expectation wrong. Which is a shame.