The American Boat and Yacht Council Foundation announced that Magnus Gedda of Volvo Penta and Anthony Margiotta from the College of the Florida Keys are its Educators of the Year.
“This year’s strong candidate pool showed the tenacity of instructors during the wide demands of teaching in Covid times,” foundation executive director Margaret Podlich said in a statement. “These winners represent the best instructors in the Northern Hemisphere, cultivating and training the aspiring workforce that the marine industry — and boaters — are relying on.”
The annual award is given to marine service technology educators working in high schools, post-secondary schools or within the industry. The co-winners each receive an award, an ABYC professional-level certification class and complimentary registration for ABYC’s next Educator Training Conference.
As product training manager, Gedda oversees training programs for Volvo Penta’s dealer technicians, OEM partners and customers in North America and South America. He has supervised the training of more than 9,000 students and helped develop e-learning programs that had trained more than 1,500 students online by the end of last year.
“Under Magnus’ leadership, we’ve been able to manage our training resources more effectively to better serve our customers,” Tony Kelleher, acting Volvo Penta of the Americas president, said in a separate statement. “When Covid-19 restrictions made it impossible to hold in-person classes at Volvo Penta’s training center, Magnus immediately pivoted to create a full curriculum of teacher-led online courseware. … We are now able to offer a broad range of Web-based and classroom courses. Student participation in our online learning classes increased from 12,000 in 2016 to 32,000 in July 2021 under his inspired leadership.”
Margiotta teaches marine engineering, seamanship and welding at the College of the Florida Keys. An ABYC Master Technician, he holds certificates from Yamaha and the American Welding Society.
“His classes are filled with lively, interactive discussion and hands-on, skills-oriented learning activities that provide students with essential experience needed to thrive in their careers,” said Jack Seubert, dean of Marine Science and Technology.
