Maritime UK Makes a Splash for National Careers Week

Maritime UK, the umbrella body for the UK’s £46.1bn maritime sector is using National Careers Week, which begins today, to promote careers across the industry.

During the week schoolchildren and careers advisors in major maritime regions will be learning about careers in one of Britain’s biggest industries. The week begins aboard HMS Prince of Wales, the nation’s newest aircraft carrier as the Royal Navy’s flagship visits Liverpool for the first time. Schoolchildren from across the North West of England have been invited aboard the 65,000-tonne carrier, to learn about how the carrier was built and the range of jobs that played a role in delivering the programme. Maritime UK will be promoting careers across all maritime industries: shipping, ports, engineering, leisure and services.

The programme to build the Queen Elizabeth Class Aircraft Carriers has been a hugely significant national endeavour.

The primary ship building facilities used to build the aircraft carriers were based in Glasgow, Appledore in Devon, Hebburn in Tyneside, Birkenhead in Merseyside, Portsmouth and Rosyth in Fife where the blocks for both ships were brought together. Hundreds of companies based around the UK have made up the supply chain and provided many of the component parts used to construct both the Prince of Wales and Queen Elizabeth carriers.

Maritime UK’s focus will then shift to Hull and to Bristol as partners from across the sector come together to promote careers at the major Skills Humber and National Careers Guidance Shows. A new year-round calendar of events to promote maritime careers is now live on the www.maritimecareers.uk website.

Ben Murray, Director of Maritime UK said:

“Following funding from government announced during London International Shipping Week in September we’ve been working with industry partners through the Maritime Careers Taskforce to establish our cross-sector careers campaign. This includes a dedicated brand, recruitment of a careers and outreach manager, production of new resources and creation of a comprehensive national programme of events where a career in maritime will now be promoted. Our activity this week is just the start of this new campaign but already shows what we can achieve by working together across the sector. National Careers Week is a fantastic opportunity to promote a career in maritime and get the message out there that maritime offers an incredibly rewarding, fulfilling and exciting career for everyone. Our message is clear, and we’re determined to get it out there.”

Maritime UK’s pitch for those thinking about their careers this week is based on the following:

• A career for everyone: Maritime offers careers at sea and ashore, with the chance to see the world. A $3trn industry: the industry is set to double in size by 2030, meaning thousands of new jobs are needed. In the UK, maritime is bigger than rail and aviation combined.
• A green revolution: the industry is going through a period of massive change and will be carbon neutral by 2050. We need new people to help us get there.
• A well-paid career: average maritime pay is £38,000, compared to the national average of £29,000.
• A funded training offer: there are numerous entry points to the sector offering fully and part-funded training.
• A variety of entry points: there is no one way to enter the maritime sector, and once in, there are tremendous opportunities to move to around the industry.

National Careers Week will also be used to share some of the new ‘Maritime and Me’ profiles of women working in the maritime sector. The project run in collaboration with Women in Science and Engineering (WISE) will see each profile integrated into WISE’s ‘MySkillsMyLife’ digital tool. The tool, used by a growing number of schools nationwide, matches individual personality traits and preferences with jobs roles from across the breadth of the economy. Now, following the collaboration supported by the Department for Transport, a wide range of maritime job roles are included.

Maritime UK is also announcing the creation of a dedicated week later this year to raise awareness of the sector across the country.

On Maritime UK Week, Murray added:

“We’re incredibly excited to announce details of Maritime UK Week 2020. This week will see the whole sector working together to raise awareness of maritime with national open days, maritime museums telling the story of contemporary maritime and many new careers events across the country. We’re also working with our regional clusters to get new maritime teaching resources into schools, with an ambition for schools all around the UK to use them during the week.”

Regional cluster organisations, being supported and established through Maritime UK’s regional cluster development programme are at the heart of delivering the national maritime careers campaign, with each region in the process of creating a regional engagement plan. The plans will set out the sector’s regional engagement activities with schools, colleges and other youth groups.

Maritime UK Week is being held from 12-18 October. Organisations wishing to be involved are asked to contact Maritime UK. 

About:

Maritime UK brings together the UK’s shipping, ports, services, engineering and leisure marine industries to promote the sector, influence government and drive growth. Supporting close to 1 million jobs and contributing around £40bn to our economy, maritime is responsible for facilitating 95% of our international trade, totaling £500bn per year. The UK offers cutting-edge maritime technology, high-quality design & manufacturing, unparalleled expertise in services and major investment opportunities. w: www.maritimeuk.org