Channel Marine Academy attracts young people to marine sector jobs

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The Channel Marine Academy project has enabled us to engage young people on the career opportunities the Marine Sector has to offer in our peripheral regions. The long-term benefits for our businesses and local economy will be substantial as we ensure a growing number of young people become more employable as a result of experiencing vocational work in the marine sector.Paul Wickes, CEO, Cornwall Marine NetworkThe main target audience for the project were young unemployed people aged 16 to 24 living in coastal or rural areas, with no specific qualifications. It aimed to reach around 3 000 young people and 800 companies through awareness-raising activities and to help 500 young people find a career in the maritime sector.The project partners pooled and optimised costs and resources in order to carry out studies in both countries identifying employers, training organisations and young people interested in training and careers in the marine and maritime sector. This led to the creation of a cross-border database of maritime businesses available to collaborate with the project.Tools for promoting training and careersWorkshops for project partners were organised in order to elaborate a common strategy for raising awareness amongst companies in the maritime sector and young people. The partners created tools to promote maritime training and careers, including a bilingual video game and a 3D movie introducing maritime careers and a website aimed at participating training organisations and young people.Based on this work, a cross-border network of some 50 maritime business ambassadors has been built up in order to promote maritime sector careers and training opportunities among the target audience. A maritime careers information chain and a jointly-developed pre-training programme for 80 people involving training sessions and over 30 exchange visits of young people between France and England have also been established.So far, more than 50 % of the pre-trained youth have found employment, many within the marine and maritime sectors. Job possibilities after training include boatbuilding, engineering, fishing, water sport instruction and the merchant navy.Total investment and EU fundingTotal investment for the project “Channel Marine Academy” is EUR 1 276 594, of which the EU’s European Regional Development Fund is contributing EUR 638 297 from the Operational Programme “France (Channel) – England” for the 2007 to 2013 programming period.