Local jobs for local people supporting the local economy
“There’s a real bottleneck in this industry,” explains Alex, “with companies keen to recruit new crew members but unable to take the costly risk of employing someone with absolutely no qualifications or experience. At the same time, there are thousands of young people who would love the opportunity to work in this exciting and rewarding industry, which has the potential to take them around the world.”
Alex joined Njord Offshore some seven years ago after an early career in publishing. “I grew up in Lowestoft and come from a family of mariners, so have always had a love for the sea. Having spent too long working in London offices, I decided on a career change. Thankfully, I was able to self-fund my initial training from savings, which enabled me to get my first deckhand role with Njord Offshore.”
Since then, Alex has worked and studied hard to get his Master’s licence, steadily moving up the vessel tonnage levels. “I’m really keen to see more people from Lowestoft build successful maritime careers. But I know how hard it can be, particularly for the unemployed, to afford the training despite living close to a thriving port. That’s why I was delighted when Njord Offshore asked me to work with East Coast College on developing content and selecting candidates for this free Skills Bootcamp.”
Industry collaboration essential for skills development
The demand for energy industry specific training is not simply to fill skills gaps. It’s also because the UK government requires new offshore windfarms to include more UK businesses and people in their
supply chains. As Alex points out, “the unemployed in Lowestoft struggle to get into seafaring partly because it is a global occupation, so they are competing for jobs with people from around the world.”
“Once you are earning,” says Alex, “it becomes easier to invest in your own career because your starting salary is likely to be £35,000 a year, even for entry level offshore work. That’s particularly the case if you are doing multi-week rotations that include tax-free work in Europe.” What was needed was funding to derisk the entry-level training for both applicants and offshore energy sector businesses.
When Skills Bootcamps’ funding became available, East of England colleges, training providers and energy businesses seized the opportunity to provide that training. The range of courses includes the OWVSC Skills Bootcamp at East Coast College. This recently saw its first intake of nine students complete their training, with seven securing immediate offshore job offers.
Skills are just the start – attitude counts too
Alex was involved in developing the OWVSC course from an early stage. “It was vital for Njord Offshore and me to pay attention not just to the course content but to candidate selection. It’s not enough to have the right qualifications to work on support vessels. You must also have the commitment to spend weeks at sea, living and working closely with a small team in sometime dangerous conditions. Only people with operational experience can really spot if someone will survive that dynamic or not.”
That’s why the course starts with a two-day introductory session, where potential candidates can discuss the demands of both the course and possible careers in detail. “This was a great opportunity to talk to young people about this amazing industry,” says Alex, “and select those with the potential to make good crew members. We then checked on their progress throughout the bootcamp, supporting and encouraging them where needed, and seeing how they tackled the various challenges.”
The results justify that approach. Alex was delighted that the two candidates he’d identified as potential recruits proved to be excellent students. “They are now working with me onboard one of Njord Offshore’s crew transfer vessels in the North Sea and really enjoying it. This shows that the more that employers put in to selecting the candidates, the better the results.”
