Innovative training programmes to attract new recruits and improve the quality of training in the fishing, seafood and aquaculture sectors have been awarded funding from the £100million UK Seafood Fund.
Recognising industry concerns over an ageing fishing workforce and with the number of UK fishers having fallen by 1,700 over the past decade, the government says is now more important than ever to ensure entrants are equipped with the necessary skills to join the sector and understand the opportunities that are available to them.
The seven projects covered by the funding award include a degree and higher level skills offer for aspiring managers in the seafood industry being developed by University of Lincoln, training courses to attract local people into the seafood sector in Grimsby, pilot courses at London’s famous Billingsgate market covering technical skills such as the delivery, preparation and cooking of seafood; practical qualifications for manning fishing boats in Cornwall; right through to training for school leavers in Scotland going into the seafood industry.
At the University of Lincoln Professor Val Braybrooks, Dean at the National Centre for Food Manufacturing, said: “The cash award will mean we can adapt our successful food manufacturing higher and degree apprenticeship offer and develop new provision to meet the skills needs of seafood processing businesses. The new programmes will support the development of aspiring leaders in our sustainability led and rapidly changing sector and we look forward to collaborating with businesses and partners across the UK to fuel the talent pipeline.
“We are indebted to members of the Seafood Grimsby and Humber Alliance for their support in informing our plans and we now look forward to working together with the sectors’ employers across the country, along with our educational partner the University of the Highlands and Islands in Shetland, to deliver this flagship skills scheme for the industry and unite our clusters and Seafood Processing communities through it.”
The projects awarded funding today will receive grants of up to £250,000 to fund the creation or redesign of pilot training courses, with over £1 million awarded overall.
