Aquaculture trio scoop Shetland awards
Three promising aquaculture students were amongst the winners at this year’s NAFC Marine Centre UHI prize giving.
Magnus Scott of Blueshell Mussels was named NAFC Modern Apprentice of the Year, as the most outstanding engineering modern apprentice who completed their award in the last academic year.
Callum Smedley, Senior Engineering Lecturer at the college, said: “Magnus was a focused student from the very start of his apprenticeship, which continued all the way through. He was always determined to complete his work-based SVQ level 3 to a high standard, and actually did a lot of self-directed learning to achieve that aim. Throughout he displayed excellent social, practical and team working skills. This has been recognised by his company, Blueshell, who quickly promoted him to a supervisory position on completion of his apprenticeship.”
Meanwhile Erik MacMillan, of Cooke Aquaculture, won the Jim Tait Prize for Level 2 SVQ Aquaculture, sponsored by Hunter & Morrison Trust.
The audience heard that Erik started working for Cooke at Hoganess in November 2014. His willingness to learn was evident straight away, and he continued his development by attending and passing all his training modules. He is now qualified to work with all boats and machinery at the site and passed his Level 3 SVQ with flying colours.
He was Cooke’s representative at the NAFC for three months, working with the lumpsuckers, and has overseen the trial of cleaner fish at the newly-opened Aith site.
He was told by his manager Keith Leslie that he could go as far as he wanted in the industry as he had the ability to learn quickly and is level-headed enough to deal with whatever is thrown at him.
Finally, Shaun McAlister of Scottish Sea Farms won the inaugural Scottish Salmon Producers’ Organisation Award for Outstanding Level 3 Modern Apprentice. A marine biologist, he has worked at the Scottish Sea Farms site in Vidlin for three years, having joined the industry at the invitation of Graham Smith following a conversation in Monty’s where he had been working as a waiter.
Knowing nothing of the salmon industry, he learned and excelled quickly. He was selected for the award because his written theory and practical skills were excellent and was deemed to be an outstanding student.
