You are overpaying an ETO to run the guest AV
Trained for the systems guests actually use
The Professional Yachting Association set out the programme in Antibes on 21 January 2026, across three stages. Level 1 is an awareness course open to all crew and newcomers, covering the audio-visual and IT kit on a modern yacht and how to run it in front of guests. Level 2 trains the designated onboard point of responsibility, with classroom and hands-on work on networks, data types and fault-finding meant to cut downtime. Level 3 is for senior crew who sit on new build and refit projects, so systems are specified against how the boat is really used.
The association built the courses with AV/IT manufacturers, installers and MCA-certified providers, and every level is delivered and assessed only through IAMI GUEST accredited providers, in English to begin with. Cyber security is written into the core of Levels 1 and 2 rather than bolted on later, a point Joey Meen, director of the IAMI GUEST programme, confirmed. Until now no STCW-mandated qualification covered this ground, so a crew member asked to keep the network alive had no formal way to prove they could.
Owners were paying for the wrong qualification
The gap the PYA is closing is a familiar one on the dock. Captains and crew agents have leaned on the electro-technical officer certificate, a degree-level electrical qualification built for high-voltage systems, as shorthand for anyone who might handle screens and connectivity. Christophe Bourillon, chief executive of the PYA, put the mismatch plainly, saying the need is 'not advanced electrical expertise, but crew with practical understanding of AV/IT systems.' Nothing mandated sat between basic familiarity and a full ETO ticket.
For an owner that mismatch shows up as cost and risk. An ETO commands an ETO salary, and hiring one to run a cinema system and a Starlink terminal over-specifies the role while leaving the actual work half-covered. The three tiers let a yacht put the right qualification against the right job, from a junior who can reboot a system without a panic call to a senior hand who can steer a refit brief. It also hands crew a progression ladder in a discipline that had none.
The line it moves in your budget
The benefit the PYA leads with is money kept ashore. It frames the programme as a way to cut reliance on costly shoreside interventions, the specialist call-outs that follow when a system fails and no one aboard can diagnose it. Level 2's diagnostic and troubleshooting content is aimed squarely at that downtime, and the embedded cyber module puts a security floor under the same people who touch the yacht's networks.
The owner read-across is straightforward. Fewer emergency technicians flown to a Mediterranean quay in August, and a cyber floor under the crew who hold the passwords. Add a genuine career path in AV/IT and the same training doubles as a retention argument. The caveats are real. Delivery runs in English only at the start and depends on GUEST providers bringing courses to market, so the saving is a promise the 2026 season will start to test rather than a number already banked.