Located within the commercial marine district of Anacortes, the Northwest Career & Technical Academy Marine Technology Center operates as a satellite to the Northwest Career & Technical Academy campus in Mount Vernon. The Marine Technology Center is the first of its kind to offer a blended model of instruction by partnering with the Skagit Valley College Marine Technology Program and Center of Excellence for Marine Technology and Manufacturing. Whether students go directly into the workplace, or continue their education through an apprenticeship, community college, or university, the Academy provides the skills, knowledge and professional leadership training necessary for future success.
The academy offers industry-defined technical education programs focused around boat building, repair, and maintenance through four specialized laboratories: a systems lab to teach on board plumbing, refrigeration, electrical and navigation systems; a composite lab for fabrication and repair of various types of vessels, including the skills needed for resin and fiberglass construction; a propulsion lab for receiving hands-on experience repairing and maintaining inboard engines, drivetrain systems, inboard outdrive propulsion systems, and outboard engines; and a wood lab to teach marine carpentry. These four main lab areas are able to focus on individualized program instruction while also offering the flexibility to open up onto a central project area allowing the students a more inter-curriculum approach. The central project area provides a large space where the students can work together on a common project integrating specific lab disciplines directed at a single project. Students improve their skills by applying what they have learned from the individual labs to a group project that incorporates all the disciplines required to coordinate repair and maintenance of marine systems and procedures for a common unified result.
