In February, five candidates from China came to Rockley Watersports to attend a three week Senior Development course specifically designed as an on-going process to help China develop its sailing programme. Since 2016, Rockley has working in partnership with China creating programmes, mentoring and offering management training in all areas of the leisure industry in a bid to help develop RYA training establishments and deliver high quality training.
Following her three week programme, Jess stayed for a further three months volunteering at Rockley and fully immersed herself into life at a highly regarded UK RYA training centre. She said; "My expectations were to improve my english, develop my sailing skills and to gain further experience in teaching and managing a sailing centre. I feel that have more than achieved all of these things"
For the first few weeks, Jess shadowed the Centre Manager, Senior Instructors, Instructors and the BTEC team which gave her the opportunity to see how all aspects of a centre functions on a daily basis. Already working in an RYA centre in China, Jess observed that while the "culture in the UK appears very relaxed, each person is very proficient at their role and clearly highly qualified"
During her time at Rockley Jess has been involved in teaching school children of all ages as well as teaching RYA courses to youngsters and adults of varying ages and abilities, however despite her busy schedule the staff have taken her out windsurfing and she has learnt how to sail a catamaran - all of which has given her further confidence out on the water.
She went on to say; "Lucy, Meghan, Holly and all the staff have really made me feel like part of the team. I feel happy that I made the decision to stay at Rockley. It has been a new experience for me and I have learnt alot. I really feel a very big sesnse for everyone here - I really love them!"