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Marine Society’s Coming Ashore programme is now in its fourth year of operation and has welcomed nearly 400 seafarers onto the programme in their search for a smooth transition to a shore-side maritime role.

The programme has now progressed to a stage where it now offers a work placement scheme titled Sea to Shore Placement Scheme (SSIPS). This initiative gives employers the opportunity to declare their interest in finding interns to fill placement roles, hopefully leading to permanent roles within their company.

The key for the Coming Ashore mentees is to experience life ashore before making the permanent transition, to see if the sector of their choice is what they hoped for and if there skillset aligns with the role.

Nazmus Sakib was the first mentee to obtain a work placement through the SSIPS scheme at Thomas Miller, the managers of the UK P&I Club. The placement catered specifically to his interest in maritime law and claims, and reaffirmed his decision to move ashore.

“Working in the UK P&I Club gave me the practical experience to see how people are handling the claims. The 2-week placement gave me the chance to work directly with the claims team and work on real life cases.

I took part in training sessions helping me to understand cargo claims and the steps taken when an emergency occurs.

Overall, I know now that when I finish my master’s degree, I can meet the expectations the UK P&I Club have for me. It has made my journey much clearer.”

One of the UK P&I Club’s Regional Claims Directors, Thomas Starr, a former mariner himself, was delighted with Nazmus’ input during the fortnight and believes the initiative is very positive for seafarers in the same predicament.

“For us it’s about a wider support and helping the industry that we are all so passionate about.

As an employer of ex-mariners, it's only right that we give back to the industry and help people get some insight into the way the maritime services sector and marine insurance work. So we're happy to support it going forward.”

If you would like to register your interest in offering a SSIP please complete this form.

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’