CalMac breaks barriers with youth training
Modern apprenticeship (MA) opportunities with ferry operator CalMac have more than doubled over the past two years.
As part of the Scottish Government’s Year of Young People, CalMac has focused recruitment efforts on creating new opportunities for school leavers across the communities it supports.
It now employs 23 MAs across deck, engineering, retail and port operation roles, a 130 per cent increase in youth employment opportunities with the company since 2016.
Managing director Robbie Drummond said: ‘This is further evidence of us delivering on our promises to improve services and facilitate sustainable economic growth across our area of operations.
‘As a major employer in the area we serve, it makes perfect sense to create a stream of trained operators who can move seamlessly into the business. Investment in training is investment in first class future service standards.
‘These are proportionately high value jobs that will in the long term bring increased spending power into the communities we support.’
The majority of the increase has come from new MAs the company has set up to help improve the flow of skilled workers for the future.
The retail MA is a UK first and was designed in partnership with City of Glasgow College to ensure a steady supply of trained crew able to carry out the variety of stewarding tasks on board. Also the first of its kind in the country, the port operations qualification is being delivered by one of the UK’s leading harbour operators, Forth Ports, the first time it has partnered up to deliver a bespoke qualification for another company.
In addition to MAs, the company sponsored 11 officer cadets over the past year, bringing the total number currently in training for a career at sea to 28.