One company, 74 careers
The company was attending a careers’ fair at the Fort William-based secondary school last week, and were surprised to find out that there was far more to the contemporary aquaculture industry that working on a farm or a fish processing factory.
Indeed, as Marine Harvest’s Jayne Mackay, who helped organise the event, told Fish Farming Expert: “Despite the strong industry presence in the area, a lot of the pupils, and their teachers, don’t know an awful lot about the fish farming industry and we were able to explain to them who we are and what careers we can offer, it’s not just about working on a fish farm or a factory – there’s everything from farm technicians, to skippers, accountants, logistics managers, translators, engineers, feed analysts, vets and biologists – and many of the roles come with extensive training programmes.”
The Lochaber event fitted in well with the company’s bid to attract a new generation to the aquaculture industry and follows on from careers events on the Black Isle earlier in the year and at the Nevis Centre in Fort William late in 2014.
Another recent initiative is their decision to continue their apprenticeship scheme – which is currently at its second stage of interviews, Jayne explains, and will see one engineering and one aquaculture apprentice being hired.
With all of these programmes currently on the go it is perhaps little surprise that the company has recently received its Investor in Young People accreditation, in recognition for its commitment to development and training.
