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Marine Society has announced a new partnership with Isle of Wight-based charity, United Kingdom Sailing Academy (UKSA).

The two organisations are working together to offer apprenticeships across the UK, helping younger people take their vital first steps towards a career in maritime.

Budding young seafarers have the opportunity to undertake the Level 2 Port Operative Apprenticeship or the Level 3 Workboat Crew Member Apprenticeship.

The Port Operative Apprenticeship contains a series of practical elements to help apprentices understand how to carry out port operative duties. They play an important role in the delivery, loading, unloading and general handling of goods and cargo, making sure it is done safely and securely.

The Workboat Crew Member Apprenticeship is a two-year programme designed to give young people the skills to operate effectively on a variety of workboat vessels, ranging from tugboats to crew transfer vessels. Workboats offer essential survey and towage services in many marine environments, including ports and offshore wind farms.

Ben Willows, CEO of UKSA, said: “Industry partnerships like this are incredibly important for creating more pathways in maritime. The more opportunities on offer, the more young people we can get into the workplace to start long-term maritime careers fulfilling vital roles in the maritime industry.”

Darrell Bate, Director of Maritime Training and Development at The Marine Society reiterated the importance of this partnership, saying:  “We are thrilled to partner with a renowned maritime organisation who share our passion for high standards of training and will enable us to expand the number of apprentices training in the maritime sector. We look forward to developing our offer with UKSA in response to the growing employer demand for relevant skills”

To discuss the apprenticeships on offer and how you can become a Marine Society/UKSA apprentice, please contact learning@ms-sc.org or call Darrell Bate 07904 118841. More information is also available at www.uksa.org .

Welcome to your digital autumn issue of Seafarer News

In this issue we pay tribute to our late Patron and give thanks for her loyalty and devotion towards our seafarers and young people. We also introduce our new suite of online shoreside courses to the MSSC audience.

Click here to view the latest issue

This summer, Marine Society have been busy exhibiting at a range of careers events and trade fairs including; the Spinnaker HR conference, Festival of Apprenticeships, London Careers Festival and Seawork 2022. These combined events allowed us to successfully promote careers into maritime to hundreds of delegates as well as our services and products such as Learn@Sea, the Coming Ashore programme and maritime apprenticeships. We were facilitated in this through partnering with other like-minded organisation that included The Worshipful Company of Shipwrights. Maritime UK and SeaRegs Training Ltd.

These also offered us great opportunities to network and spread our influence more widely, especially following the long period when face to face events were suspended.

In June this year, Marine Society partnered with the Nautical Insitute to exhibit at the world-renowned Posidonia International Shipping Exhibition.

Held in Athens, this was the first Posidonia event since 2018 and generated huge interest with 1900 exhibitors taking part along with 20,000 visitors attending in what was a week of global exposure for the world’s leading maritime organisations.

It was a great opportunity to promote the work of Marine Society on the global stage and hear from thought leaders in the world of shipping. Conference panels tackled diverse subjects including ‘Navigating the Maritime Future’, ‘Women at Sea’, ‘The 4th Propulsion Age’ and ‘Promoting a Life at Sea’.

Director Darrell Bate said; ‘I felt it was important for us to see and be seen at this seminal event. Alongside the Nautical Institute, we are internationally-known and respected by seafarers around the world so it was fantastic to share together for Posidonia 2022’

On 10^th May HRH The Princess Royal attended an event hosted by Thames Skills Academy at which she was treated to a demonstration of nautical skills by Marine Society apprentices, Beauty Marshall from the Port of London Authority and Lenny King from Thames Clippers. The Princess also presented Clemence Barbey with a Certificate recognising her outstanding commitment to learning during her Boatmaster Apprenticeship with Marine Society which she started at City Cruises and completed at the PLA late last year.

Clemence Barbey said ‘I am really pleased with winning this award and meeting Princess Anne was incredible.’

Darrell Bate, Director of Maritime Training and Development said; ‘we were delighted that our apprentice received this recognition and that the skills of our apprenticeships was showcased to the Princess who also happens to be Admiral of the Sea Cadets’

This caps a remarkable year for Clemence who also received Marine Society’s Apprentice of the Year award back in October of 2021, which was awarded virtually by Darrell at MSSC’s Annual Court.

Our apprentices receiving such awards sets an extremely high benchmark for current and future apprentices to aspire to as the scheme continues to build and become and evermore attractive prospective for aspiring seafarers.