Background

About the Project >> Background

Despite the perception that the marine sector is part of the history of the North East, largely because of the high profile decline in ship construction, the sector is in reality buoyant.

The sector includes a wide variety of companies, including ports, shipping, ship repair, services, and supply chain. A failure by much of the industry to recruit and train new employees has left the sector dangerously short of essential skills. The use of labour from other parts of the EU highlights this issue.

There is a perception that marine industry, and particularly the engineering elements of the sector, are history and offer no real careers. In reality, the demand for skills has never been greater in the world wide marine industry and well paid careers are open to new entrants.

Solving the problem

The proposed approach is in phases. The first, and very important phase was to identify the scope and scale of the problem on a sector wide basis. The views of a representative sample of companies was sought to identify the skills that are in short supply, and current and potential future solutions. Discussions were held, and data sought from individual companies, but also from the local (and some national) trade associations.

The second phase, which was carried out partly in parallel with the first, was the identification of existing high level skills provision in the region. The existing capability will then be mapped against the requirements, to identify gaps in provision.

The third phase is to develop an outline programme of new provision, which will strengthen the local educational and skills sector, and meet the increasing needs of regional companies.

The final phase is to plan for the promotion of the sector, the careers opportunities, and the additional skills provision. This will seek to attract potential trainees from secondary schools and from within the sector, seeking enhanced skills or a career change (for example additional skills to move form a seagoing to a shore job within the shipping sector).

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