IYRS getting students ready to compete in job market

Terry Nathan has been at the helm of the IYRS School of Technology & Trades in Newport since 2004, when he was named its new president. The school, originally founded in 1993 as the International Yacht Restoration School, is a hands-on education model with three accredited schools in technology, boatbuilding and restoration, and marine systems.
Under Nathan’s watch, IYRS has undergone changes, such as collaborating regularly with post-secondary schools of architecture, preservation, industrial design and engineering through short-term classes, including the Rhode Island School of Design, Roger Williams University and others.
IYRS recently entered into an articulation agreement with Salve Regina University for the fall to allow IYRS students to transfer credits into any undergraduate program at Salve’s Newport campus or at the Center for Adult Education in Warwick.
IYRS also recently bought a half-acre parcel of the Casey Marina on Spring Wharf in Newport for $1.9 million, with plans to move its current Bristol-based composites-technology and marine programs there within two years.

PBN: Why was it important to move the tech and marine programs from Bristol to Newport, and how did the deal come about?
NATHAN: For one thing, it consolidates our campus in Newport. I think aside from being a more efficient operation, it will dramatically improve the collective experience of our students. We’d been looking for a couple of years for a property close or contiguous to us, and had been talking to Bill Casey, the owner of Spring Wharf for quite awhile.

PBN: When do you hope to open it, and how big will it be?
NATHAN: We’re hoping by fall 2016. We’re creating a brand-new facility, so those details, along with size and cost, are still very much in planning. We also intend to add into the space a business incubator that will attract closer relationships and some industry partners. It will be a nice nexus between students and moving on to jobs.

PBN: How did the agreement with Salve Regina University come about?
NATHAN: If you think about Newport, the two main historic activities that occurred here are boats and buildings. We felt it made sense to capitalize on the connection of the school and that heritage. It was obvious that teaching people to make furniture, restore historic homes, do metal work, do reproductions with different materials and so on was in keeping with our core mission, so we worked on programming with Salve.

PBN: You’ve got educational collaborations with other entities as well, such as the Coast Guard, the Harvard School of Design, RISD, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Roger Williams, etc.?
NATHAN: Our collaboration with the Coast Guard has been going on a long time, the others are borne out of a new program we developed three or four years ago to make and build using modern materials. As it turns out, that in combination with our educational model for teaching these skills makes it very attractive to engineering and architectural programs at other schools. It’s very exciting for us, it really validates our approach and our way of educating people who want to make lifelong careers.

PBN: IYRS long relied on donations to fund the budget. Is that still the case?
NATHAN: When I got here, about 80 percent was from philanthropy. Now it’s about 40 percent; the rest comes from tuition and fees.

PBN: IYRS has a pretty impressive job-placement rate for graduates of around 90 percent. Why so high? NATHAN: A convergence of things, but one in particular is our marine trades. There’s a lot of institutional knowledge out there that’s retiring, and the need for the training recently became more acute. I also think there’s a conversation going on in America about what we need to do to educate our young people to be able to compete in the 21st-century economy. That’s what we do here, at a deep level that makes them attractive to the job market. We’re proud of our placement rate, and are careful to continue it by always reaching out to industry partners.

PBN: What kind of jobs are graduates getting?
NATHAN: It’s a pretty broad range. We still have a fair number staying in the marine trades in a variety of businesses, including local restoration yards and local places like Hinckley and New England Boatworks. They’re also going to places like Exelis in Rochester, N.Y., they’re building rockets, they’re going to small companies making architectural objects, others are going to the auto industry. There’s a broad range of applications for the skills they learn here.

PBN: What are your future growth plans for the school?
NATHAN: Well, in preparing for the next leg of the race, if you will, we’ve put together an impressive management team. We just hired a vice president of education [Frank Sargent], who was acting provost at Johnson & Wales University, and a chief finance officer [Rebeka Mazzone], who was also at Johnson & Wales. We think of our growth plans not in terms of enrolling more students, but in making sure we’re producing outcomes for our graduates that are exceptional. That’s how we measure our success. Are we thinking of new things all the time? Always, but we remain laser-focused on doing the best job we’re now doing. •INTERVIEW
Terry Nathan
POSITION: President of IYRS School of Technology & Trades
BACKGROUND: Came to IYRS as president in 2004. For much of the previous 20 years, Nathan was in the software industry, mostly in three startups as a partner and operating executive. He is co-founder of The Media Services Group, a major supplier of ERP systems to publishers, and has consulted for international publishers, including Forbes, Transcontinental Media and other content groups.
EDUCATION: Bachelor’s degree in humanities from Shimer College in Chicago, 1977; Master’s degree in literature and writing from the University of Montana, 1979
FIRST JOB: Worked at an apple orchard
RESIDENCE: Newport
AGE: 61