Innovative approaches to
promoting maritime careers
• John Hepburn
PROMARC
• PROmoting MArine Research Careers
• Create and analyse database of
regional/national/EU schemes
• Identify drivers and key success factors
• Recommend existing schemes for support
• Propose new schemes to take forward
Database
• Simple structure – Excel spreadsheet, .txt
notes, links to more detailed information
• 64 entries from 5 countries
• UK centric
• Ongoing
Analysis
• Taxonomy
• Key success factors
• Performance measures
• Enabling bodies
• Scored projects against 10 key drivers
Analysis - Taxonomy
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Curriculum Resources
Careers Promotion
Games & Challenges
Courses, Diplomas & Scholarships
Popular / New Media
Ambassadors
Sector Promotion
Analysis – Key Success Factors
• “Success is determined more by having
the right people than by having the right
systems”
Analysis - Performance measures
• Difficult
• Generally not done
• Some measures:
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Feedback from attendees/participants
Follow up interviews
Internet activity
Recruitment levels
• “none of the outcomes are rigorous enough to confirm
that the project in question brought new candidates into
the maritime sector”
Analysis - Enabling bodies
• Clusters, coastal partnerships
• Trade bodies (includes learned societies)
• Individual companies (includes charities)
• Further and higher education bodies
• And, occasionally, governmental bodies
Analysis – Key drivers
1. Perceived low level of political/strategic
importance by governing bodies
2. Lack of knowledge and understanding
about the marine surface transport
sector
3. Sector not as attractive to young people
as other sectors
4. Financial reward and pay seen to be
unattractive
5. Inability to compete for the best talent
from universities and colleges
Analysis – Key drivers
6. Traditional industry unable/unwilling to
change working methods.
7. Traditional industry unable/unwilling to
change recruitment methods or embrace
research.
8. Lack of interaction between industry and
academia on the development of
education and research.
9. Poor exposure in the media.
10. Insufficient information at school and
college level about the sector
Weighted Top 10 activities
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Sea your Future - IMarEST
Maritime Clusters
Maritime Magazine
Oceans of Opportunity (SUT)
Science and Engineering Ambassador (SEA)
Marine Careers Opportunities - IMarEST
Mersey Maritime - Quay Skills
French Maritime Clusters
Dover Maritime Careers Fair
Maritime Strategy for the Westpomeranian
Region
Analysis – Top scoring schemes
• Curriculum Resources
– Aggregate Levy Sustainability Fund (57.5)
• Careers Promotion
• Games & Challenges
– Sea your Future – IMarEST (73)
– Maritime Enterprise Game (43)
• Courses, Diplomas & Scholarships
• Popular / New Media
• Ambassadors
– Mersey Maritime - Quay Skills (61)
– BBC Series "Coast“ (41)
– Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM)
Ambassador (63)
• Sector Promotion
– Maritime Clusters (70)
Project lies at junction of 3 policies:
• Maritime
• Science, Technology, Engineering and
Maths
• Youth
Youth
Maritime
STEM
STEM Ambassadors
• “What’s my line?” visits to schools
STEM Ambassadors
• Participation in Engineering Education Scheme
– Ambassadors mentor school teams finding solutions
to real world engineering problems
STEM Ambassadors
• Participation in Engineering Education Scheme
– Ambassadors mentor school teams finding solutions
to real world engineering problems
STEM Ambassadors
• Participation in Engineering Education Scheme
– Ambassadors mentor school teams finding solutions
to real world engineering problems
Curriculum Resources
• Marine environment attractive topic
• Lead into maritime activities
• Increase interest in maritime careers
• Must involve teachers to be valued
• Also needs personal touch – internet is not
enough!
• The “Beach Litter” project
Beach Litter Project
• Asks students to write back story of 4 items of
•
litter
Background information
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Litter
Sources
Shipping
Fishing
Ocean currents, winds, tides
• Images
• Powerpoint presentation
Beach Litter
Where does litter come from?
• The Marine
Conservation Society
runs a survey of beach
litter every year.
• The four main sources
of beach litter are
from the public,
fishing, sewage and
shipping
Source: Marine Conservation Society Beachwatch Survey 2008
Where does litter come from?
• Shipping litter - 1.8%
- 39 items per km
– Includes items such
as pallets, strapping
bands and oil drums.
Some items of public
litter may have come
from ships.
Source: Marine Conservation Society Beachwatch Survey 2008
Ships
• Ships are not the
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worst polluters.
They are more than
dots on the horizon.
They carry more
than 90% of the
stuff you buy.
They carry stuff
that would
otherwise go by
road.
What sorts of ships
are there, and what
do they do?
How did these get to
Wembury?
• Rope
• Balloon
• Oil
drum
• Radar
aerial
Clusters and Careers Promotion
• Sea Vision UK
• Maritime Magazine
• New edition for the “U
Tube Generation” soon
Clusters and Careers Promotion
• Maritime Plymouth proposed local guide
• Working with Blue Sound
• Sea is an amazing environment (marine)
• Sea offers amazing opportunitities
(maritime)
• Shared marine and maritime information
resources
• Tailor to individual needs
• Marine and Maritime Ambassadors
Plymouth Local Guide – Shared Resource
Wildlife
There are many sea creatures below the surface, or exposed by the tide.
These are some that you might see from a boat.
Great Black-backed Gull, Larus marinus
Very common in and around the Sound,
this is the biggest gull you will see, but
not as bid as a gannet. It eats almost
anything.
Plymouth Local Guide – Shared Resource
What does that ship do?
Product Tanker
Product tankers
carry refined oil to
the fuel tanks in
Plymouth, reducing
road haulage, and
keeping local petrol
prices low
Plymouth Local Guide – Shared Resource
Leisure Boating
People go boating in all kinds of different boats
Bermudan Sloop
A Bermudan sloop has two working
sails, both triangular. The mainsail,
behind the mast has no spar of its
own. The sail in front of the mast
can have several names. Most usual
are jib or foresail. This yacht has
a jib which goes up to the top of
the mast, and a long low foot at the
bottom and is known as a masthead
genoa, or “genie.” This sort of boat
sails well upwind. When sailing with
the wind behind, the crew will
sometimes hoist another sail called
a spinnaker. This rig is popular on a
range of sizes of boats, from small
dinghies to huge yachts.
Plymouth Local Guide – Shared Resource
People in Plymouth who use the sea for pleasure or profit
Kate Reed - Business Analyst for Infospectrum
I graduated in “Maritime Business with Maritime Law” from Plymouth
University in 2007 as a mature student. This gave me a practical
knowledge of the management and operation of ships, and to the
carriage of goods by sea, and research and analysis skills, which,
combined with my previous work experience in business, fitted me
for my job.
Infospectrum is a leading independent provider of commercial
intelligence to companies active in shipping, commodity trading, ship
finance and insurance. I write reports on companies, principally in
the marine, energy and commodities sectors. I have to use
different levels of research, covering many international
jurisdictions, while keeping up to date on current industrial issues,
before analysing my various findings and presenting them in a
written report. The clients often require the information within very
tight deadlines. The diversity and uniqueness of the companies I
cover means that no two days in the “office” are the same.
Working from home in Plymouth lets me do a job in an exciting and
varied industry and live by the sea.
Plymouth Local Guide - Tailored
Landmarks of Plymouth Sound
Match up the pictures with the letters on the map (10 points each)
A
^ Breakwater Fort
B
<
C
D
Fort Bovisand
^ Drake’s Island
Total points
Fort Picklecombe
>
Plymouth Local Guide - Tailored
Marine Wildlife
Fins & Flippers
There is a wealth of life under the water which you can only see by diving, or by poking around when the
tide is out. What you might see from a boat are mega fauna—which is how scientists describe big animals.
Whales, dolphins and porpoises are mammals like us, and they
need to breathe air, which they do through a blow-hole in
the top of their head. You are not likely to see a whale in
the Sound, but dolphins (right) often come in and play
around the bows of ships and boats. Porpoises are much
smaller and their dorsal fins are much less conspicuous. All
these animals are known as cetaceans.
50 points for any cetacean (plus 10 points for each extra
one).
(Photo: Simon Middleton)
Basking sharks (below) are our biggest
fish. But they live on the smallest of
sea creatures—plankton and would not
be interested in you as food. If the
plankton is close to the surface you
may see their dorsal and tail finas, and
maybe their snouts as they hoover up
the plankton with their wide open
mouths..
Seals (right) are
difficult to spot as
you only usually see
the head, and that
not for long. But
they are curious animals and my come to have a closer
look at you. You are more likely to see a grey seal than a
common seal, and they are not easy to tell apart.
90 points for a basking shark.
70 points for a seal.
(Photo:
Total points
Plymouth Local Guide - Tailored
Cornubia
Bristol Channel Pilot Cutters used to take pilots out to the big ships coming in from sea. The pilots knew
the local waters better than the ship’s own captain and could take them safely into harbour. Cornubia was
built in Polruan, Cornwall in 1911, but she has had a lot of work done to her recently .
As a cutter she has one mast, and can set two or more sails in front of the
mast, and a mainsail behind the mast. When racing we set a topsail above the
mainsail. The crew will help you tell which sail is which. Match up the names
to the letters.
A
Jib
Foresail
The port side is the one on your left as
you look towards the bows (sharp end).
The other side is called starboard.
Which side of the boat are we looking
at in the picture on the right?
5 points
Mainsail
Topsail
5 points for each one
B
C
In the picture to the left
we are looking aft, at the
stern (blunt end). Ropes
which are used to control
the angle of the sails are
called sheets. Which one
is this?
D
Total points
5 points
Plymouth Local Guide - Tailored
Sea Power
You will see many warships in Plymouth Sound and the River Tamar. Devonport Royal Dockyard is Europe’s biggest ship
repair facility. It maintains many Royal Navy ships, and some are based here. Others come here to train, along with
warships from other countries. You will also see Royal Fleet Auxiliary ships. You can tell what sort of ship it is from the
letter at the beginning of its pennant number which is painted on its side. Why not make a note of the pennant numbers
and names of any warships you see?
Destroyers have pennant numbers beginning with D and
frigates with an F. These are the work-horses of modern
navies. The frigate below is HMS Cumberland
15 points for a destroyer or frigate
10 extra points for a foreign one
To the left is a Royal Fleet Auxiliary ship.
It carries spare fuel for ships away from
harbour—a sort of floating service station.
It is a merchant ship—RFA Black Rover
not HMS Black Rover RFAs fly a blue
ensign at the stern, rather than the white
ensign.
15 points for an RFA.
HMS Ocean, on the right, is the Navy’s biggest ship. It carries
commandos and can land them by landing craft, helicopters, or
straight onto a jetty.
30 points
Total points
Plymouth Local Guide - Tailored
People
Here are some of the people whose work in Plymouth involves them with the sea.
Would you like to work in, on or by the sea?
Mike Pumphrey Havenmaster,
Plymouth Yacht
Haven (left)
(Photo: Mike Pumphrey)
Charlotte Marshall - Research
scientist at Plymouth's Marine
Institute (right)
(Photo: Charlotte Marshall)
John Hepburn - Freelance business
support consultant, and author of
Time in the Tide (below)
Innovative approaches to
promoting maritime careers
• The three most important things:
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