Building A Future Foundation

Author name: BAFF

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SLYG celebrating Vesak 2026.

Every year, our students at Building A Future Foundation celebrate Vesak Day by making Vesak kudu (traditional lanterns) to decorate the foundation and surrounding spaces, while also organizing dansalas, where they offer bread, ice cream, and drinks to passers-by as an act of generosity and community spirit.Many workers from Ocean Voyager, HAVN and Seatek joined our BAFF students to organise these dansals and help during the food donations. Vesak, also known as Buddha’s Day, is one of the most meaningful celebrations in Sri Lanka and for Buddhists around the world. It commemorates the Buddha’s birth, enlightenment, and passing (Parinirvana), all believed to have taken place on the same full-moon day. More than a religious celebration, Vesak is a time when communities come together to reflect, share, and show kindness to others. Across Sri Lanka, streets light up with colorful lanterns, homes and temples are beautifully decorated, and people take part in acts of generosity by offering food and drinks to others. The atmosphere during Vesak is truly special, bringing people together around values of compassion, gratitude, and giving. For our students and workers, Vesak is not only a cultural celebration but also an opportunity to develop teamwork, creativity, and a sense of transmission and generosity by contributing directly to an important tradition shared with the wider community. It’s another occasion to feel SLYG as a powerfull community where uplifting each other is the ground of our mission.

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The Building a future foundation: learning through real work training.

At Building A Future Foundation (BAFF), education doesn’t stop at the classroom door. To help students better understand the professional world and prepare for their future careers, each newly recruited batch participates in dedicated industry visits to expose them to real working environments and professional practices. As part of this experience, students visit key industrial sites such as the water treatment plant in Baddegama and Ocean Voyager International. These visits allow students to discover different industries, better understand how professional environments operate, and gain first-hand exposure to workplace expectations and daily operations. Through guided site visits, students can observe professional workflows, learn how teams collaborate, and see how technical knowledge is applied in real-life situations. At the water treatment plant, students gain insight into essential infrastructure and operational systems. In parallel, their day-to-day classes and on-the-job training within the different branches of SLYG give them the opportunity to explore a wide range of careers in the marine industry, including through Ocean Voyager and HAVN. These experiences play an important role in helping students connect their training to future career opportunities. By stepping into real workplaces, they can better imagine themselves in professional roles, build confidence, and develop a clearer understanding of the standards, responsibilities, and opportunities that await them after their training. At BAFF, we believe that practical exposure is an essential part of learning. By introducing students to industrial environments early in their journey, we aim to help them build not only technical knowledge but also confidence, motivation, and a stronger vision for their future.

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Spontaneous class at the foundation: creating workplace awareness through safety training.

Safety is a fundamental part of professional training at Building A Future Foundation (BAFF). As students prepare to enter technical and industrial careers, learning how to work safely and responsibly is considered just as important as developing practical skills. To support this, BAFF conducts dedicated safety awareness and implementation programs to create a strong culture of workplace safety from the start of each student’s journey.Through these programs, students are introduced to both personal safety and industrial safety practices through a combination of theoretical lessons and practical sessions. The objective is not only to teach safety procedures but also to help students understand the importance of responsibility, prevention, and awareness in professional environments. During the program, students learn how workplace accidents can occur, the common risks found in industrial settings, and the actions that can help prevent incidents before they happen. They are guided through practical situations to better understand how to react in real-life scenarios and what steps to follow if an accident occurs. The training also covers important topics such as the use and operation of fire extinguishers, emergency response procedures, and basic first-aid methods. By combining practical demonstrations with hands-on learning, students gain essential knowledge to help protect themselves and others in the workplace. At BAFF, safety education is viewed as an essential life skill that extends beyond the classroom and workshop. By equipping students with strong safety awareness and practical emergency knowledge, the foundation helps them feel more confident, responsible, and ready to face workplace situations safely.

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Right after the last graduation ceremony, BAFF meets new candidates for upcoming training program interviews !

At Building A Future Foundation (BAFF), every new journey begins with understanding the aspirations, potential, and goals of future students. Following the graduation of our Multi-Skill Technician batch, the foundation staff had the opportunity to meet and interview 15 new candidates who may soon join one of our training programs. During the interview process, students were invited to share more about their personal profiles, educational backgrounds, and future ambitions. These conversations help us better understand each individual’s interests, strengths, and career goals, while also ensuring that they are guided toward the program that best matches their potential and aspirations. In addition to getting to know the candidates, the sessions also served as an introduction to BAFF and the opportunities available through the foundation. Students received information about the training center, the different courses offered, and the practical skills they can develop throughout their learning journey. Career guidance was also provided to help them better understand possible career paths and future opportunities linked to the training. To ensure students and their families have a clear understanding of what BAFF offers, candidates were informed about the benefits and facilities available after enrolling in the programs, as well as the employment opportunities that may become available after successfully completing their training. At BAFF, recruitment is more than just a selection process, it is the beginning of building a future. By supporting students from the very first step, we aim to help them make informed decisions and start their journey with confidence, motivation, and a clear vision for their future. If you feel like taking part to the baff program or know somebody that could be interested, contact us !

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A new batch of BAFF students graduated in early May 2026, a moment to look back and feel proud of our youth.

Recently, we marked the completion of a training program jointly conducted by the Building A Future Foundation (BAFF) and the National Apprentice and Industrial Training Authority (NAITA). This group consisted of 15 students trained under the Multi-Skill Technician program. Over the course of 1.5 years, students develop practical skills across multiple technical fields. By the end of the program, they are able to perform basic welding, operate lathes and milling machines for metal cutting, carry out single-phase and three-phase electrical wiring, repair air-conditioning units, complete plumbing work, masonry, and basic carpentry. The goal is to train highly versatile young professionals with practical, hands-on abilities across several industries. Our organization was the first to introduce this Multi-Skill Technician program in Sri Lanka, under the leadership of Dr. Tissa Jinasena. Since its introduction, we have trained nearly 1,000 students through this initiative. Today, many of these graduates hold strong positions in the professional fields they chose to pursue. Because students graduate with skills applicable to many sectors, employment opportunities are often available to them immediately after completing the training. The program is offered completely free of charge. Students receive breakfast each morning and a daily allowance. Until recently, graduates of the Multi Skill program received a certification from NAITA under the title “Multi Skill Craftsman.” However, this cohort received an upgraded qualification titled “Multi-Skill Technician.” The certification is recognized as NVQ Level 4, representing a strong professional qualification and an important milestone for students entering the workforce. We are proud to have continued this initiative for approximately fifteen years. The financial support that makes this possible is generously provided by our founder, Pierre Pringiers. His wife, a talented artist, contributes by selling her artwork at exhibitions in Singapore, with the proceeds helping fund the program. Although Belgian, Pierre has dedicated significant efforts toward supporting Sri Lanka and continues to contribute meaningfully to the country’s development.

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Building Futures Beyond Technical Skills: Personal Development at BAFF. 

At the Building A Future Foundation (BAFF), education goes far beyond technical training. While students develop practical and professional expertise through hands-on learning, personal growth remains an equally important part of their journey. Through a range of personal development programs, BAFF aims to help students not only build careers but also build confidence, ambition, and a stronger sense of direction for their future. Throughout their training, students participate in multiple personal development sessions designed to equip them with valuable life skills. These programs focus on leadership, decision-making, self-awareness, communication, and personal responsibility. More importantly, they encourage students to believe in themselves, recognize their potential, and gain the confidence needed to shape the future they want. After the recruitment of each student batch, BAFF provides both internal and external personal development programs to support this growth journey. Internally, students participate in sessions led by Mr. Geeth, manager at SEATEK and teacher at BAFF , who guides them through key aspects of personal and professional development. During these workshops, students learn how to create a personal vision and mission, better understand their own strengths and capabilities, develop positive attitudes, and improve decision-making skills. These sessions encourage reflection and help students better understand who they are, where they want to go, and how they can work toward their goals. In addition to internal training, students also participate in an external personality development program conducted at the Jinasena Training Institute in Embilipitiya. This intensive three-day program provides students with an opportunity to step outside of their usual environment and further strengthen important personal and interpersonal skills. The program focuses on enhancing leadership abilities, fostering positive attitudes, helping students define goals and objectives, and identifying their personal strengths. For many students, these programs become an important turning point. Beyond technical education, they gain practical tools to navigate challenges, build resilience, and approach opportunities with greater confidence.By combining hands-on vocational training with personal development, BAFF seeks to empower students not only to enter the workforce but to grow into confident individuals capable of creating meaningful and sustainable futures for themselves and their communities. At BAFF, building a future means more than learning a profession, it means learning to believe in what is possible.

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HAVN and Seatek supporting fishing communities in Jaffna with new sail sets.

The Building A Future Foundation (BAFF) and Seatek, our fabric, metal and fiberglass workshop recently provided four sets of sails to fishermen in Jaffna, continuing SLYG support for local communities. This initiative follows an earlier donation that delivered two fishing boats to support their daily work. With the addition of these sail sets, the objective remains the same: to provide practical tools that can be directly used on the ground. For these fishermen, having the right equipment makes a real difference. Sails are not just part of the boat as they shape how easily and safe they can move, how efficiently they can work, and how well they can adapt to changing conditions. By providing new sails for existing boats, this support helps improve their day-to-day work in a simple and practical way. This approach reflects both the group’s and Foundation’s overall direction, focusing on actions that address real needs and make a tangible difference, both immediately and over time. In Jaffna, this is part of a longer-term commitment. The idea goes beyond one-off support, aiming instead to create continuity and help communities not only carry out their work, but sustain and grow it over time.

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The SLYG annual cricket match : One field, one group, one tradition before Sri Lankan New Year.

Every year, the Friday before Sri Lankan New Year, Sea Leisure Yachting Group comes together for a tradition that has quietly become one of the most telling moments of our calendar: the SLYG cricket match. It is not an “event” in the corporate sense. There is no script, no staged speeches, no long explanation needed. Teams simply form, representing different branches, brands and locations of the group, and for a few hours everyone shares the same field. In a group where daily work happens across yards, workshops, marinas and on-water operations, that matters more than it might seem. Because most weeks, we move fast. Boatbuilding teams focus on precision, production rhythm and finishing details. Workshop and upholstery teams keep standards high in ways that are often invisible once a product is delivered. Operations teams manage the realities of sea time, guests, weather, and timing. Each part of the ecosystem has its own pressure, its own pace, its own priorities. The cricket match does something very simple: it brings those worlds into the same place, at the same time, without hierarchy and without roles. This year, you could feel that mix clearly. People from HAVN and the wider workshop side brought the same hands-on energy they bring to their work, but with a lighter mood. Ocean Voyager teams carried that strong coordination mindset that exists behind every build and every launch, except this time the “deadline” was a run to the boundary. Sail Lanka teams showed up with the same team spirit you see on the water, where everyone has a role and timing matters. It was competitive, but it stayed friendly in the way only a real internal tradition can be, where people want to win but still want everyone to enjoy the day. What makes the match valuable is not the sport itself. It is what happens around it. The conversations between overs. The jokes. The small moments where someone meets a colleague they usually only know through an email thread. In a multi-brand ecosystem, that kind of familiarity changes the way collaboration works afterwards. It reduces friction. It shortens the distance between teams. It makes it easier to ask a question, share an update, or solve a problem quickly, because you have built a simple human connection first. The timing also gives this tradition a deeper meaning. Sri Lankan New Year is a moment of reset across the country. People slow down, close one chapter, and prepare for the next. Having the group cricket match just before the holidays feels like our own way of doing that, together. A pause that is not only a break, but a reminder of what we have built over the past year, and of what it takes to build it: teamwork, trust, and a shared culture across very different environments. That is why the SLYG cricket match is always more than a good day. It is a small reflection of the ecosystem itself. Different brands, different sites, different roles, one group. And sometimes, one field is enough to make that real. We would like to thank everyone who played, supported, organised, and contributed to the energy of the day. Wishing a happy Sri Lankan New Year to the whole SLYG community.

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The Women Behind SLYG: A look back at International Women’s Day !

International Women’s Day 2026 International Women’s Day always comes with its share of campaigns, posts, and statements. This year, we chose a simpler approach inside Sea Leisure Yachting Group: instead of speaking about women across the ecosystem, we took the time to listen to them. We met women working across different branches of the group, in very different environments and roles. Some are visible in the rhythm of day to day operations, others work behind the scenes where precision matters, and others contribute through hands on craft and production. The roles do not look alike, but the way they described their work often led back to the same idea: being part of something that is built collectively over time. The 2026 theme, Give to Gain, did not appear as a slogan in our conversations. It came up naturally, through stories of how work actually happens when teams rely on each other. One of them summed it up in a sentence that stayed with us: supporting and empowering others helps everyone grow together. Across the discussions, “giving” rarely meant grand gestures. It looked more like daily consistency: taking time to help someone learn, making sure things are done properly, sharing information, staying calm when pressure rises, being present when someone needs guidance. Sometimes it was direct. Sometimes it was invisible. As one woman put it very plainly: I support indirectly, but I support the business. Support that keeps everything moving Support took many forms depending on the role. In some teams, it meant creating a safe environment where people can work with confidence. In others, it meant helping colleagues grow into their responsibilities and develop their skills. And in some functions, it meant ensuring that nothing collapses because a detail was missed: processes, accuracy, coordination, preparation. That is often the difference between something that looks smooth from the outside and something that actually runs smoothly inside. In a multi brand ecosystem, those forms of support connect. They travel across teams and locations. They become part of the culture. Pride, belonging, and responsibility Another strong thread was pride. Not the exaggerated kind, and not the promotional kind. More a quiet pride in knowing that the work matters, that it reaches real clients, and that it contributes to a sector that is still evolving. The blue economy has not always been perceived as a place where everyone naturally belongs. Yet what came through clearly was a sense of legitimacy: the feeling of being in the right place, doing real work, and building expertise. For some, that pride also carries responsibility. The idea that simply being there, progressing, and taking space with competence makes it easier for others to imagine themselves in the same environment. Growth that happens inside teams Growth came up again and again, but rarely as a personal ambition disconnected from the group. People spoke about learning on the job, gaining confidence, and becoming more solid in their role, but always in relation to others: a team, a mentor, a manager, a colleague who helped, a workplace that allowed progression. That is where Give to Gain becomes concrete. What you give to others often comes back as trust, as experience, as a smoother working environment, as stronger collaboration. In the long run, it creates more opportunities for everyone, not only for one person. What we wanted to highlight This is what we wanted to share for International Women’s Day 2026: not a perfect story, not a marketing statement, but a closer look at what keeps an ecosystem moving. The people behind the work. The culture of support. The pride of being part of something built in real conditions, with real teams. Because in the end, “giving” inside a company is not a line in a theme. It is the daily way people show up for each other. And that is often what makes the biggest difference.

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Welcoming the BAFF 2026 Student Intake

We are proud to welcome a new batch of students to the “BAFF” Foundation for 2026. Every intake is a reminder that the Foundation exists in the first place to create real opportunities, build real skills and to support long term pathways of young people into the blue economy. Two training paths, one shared ambition The Buildind A Future Foundation currently runs two NAITA-certified main trainings, both designed to prepare students for professional environments. The first program is the Multiskilled track, built as a broad foundation for students who want to develop operational skills that translate into real jobs, including roles in hospitality maintenance, general upkeep, and marine related environments. The second program is focused on boatbuilding and technical pathways, aimed at students who want to build deeper expertise in hands on marine construction skills and workshop environments. Across both tracks, the objective stays the same: take motivated students and turn that motivation into competence, confidence, and professional readiness. Part of a wider ecosystem The BAFF Foundation is closely linked to the Sea Leisure Yachting Group. That connection matters because it anchors training in reality. Students are not learning in isolation. They are learning within an ecosystem where standards, deadlines, teamwork, and quality are part of daily work. This is how it becomes more than learning but an exposure to real professional expectations and to the mindset required to succeed in marine and hospitality industries. Learning alongside experienced teams The Foundation is located in the same environment as SeaTek and HAVN which allows daily contact between trainees and experienced professionals. Maybe the most powerfull part of the training for both our students and HAVN workforce. Indeed, for the SeaTek and HAVN teams, it is not only about production. It is also about passing on know how and building the next generation of capable workers while getting meaningfull insights from the new generation. also, Year after year, some trainees continue their path within SeaTek and HAVN, while others often grow into roles across other parts of the SLYG ecosystem. That continuity is one of the strongest signals that the model works. Looking ahead To the new 2026 intake, welcome. You are joining a Foundation that believes in long term progress, in skills that translate into careers, and in an ecosystem that can open doors when discipline meets opportunity. We look forward to seeing your growth, your confidence, and your results over the coming months.

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