Aqua Nor - Student Day

Young blood

Students from Trondheim and the rest of Norway are invited to visit Aqua Nor free of charge on the final day of the show, Friday, August 21, to explore the opportunities offered by exhibitors and the aquaculture industry. The demand for seafood will continue to grow rapidly in the years ahead, and if Norway is to reach the government’s objective of becoming the world’s foremost seafood nation, the industry will have to recruit a lot more, smart, young brains.

For the students, it is an industry that offers the most exciting potential for innovation and therefore many attractive job prospects.

Øyvind Haram, director of information of Seafood Norway (previously the Norwegian Seafood Federation), said: ‘A research report released some years ago concluded that we may increase value creation six-fold over the next 35 years.

‘We shall have to find ways to achieve this in a sustainable way. We’ll be needing a plethora of new technological solutions for slaughtering and production, bright minds to find what other opportunities can be found in the ocean and to exploit our natural resources.’

Seafood Norway is one of the sponsors of the Student Day, together with the Norwegian University for Science and Technology (NTNU), the ‘Get your sea legs’ project, Youngfish, and the Nor-Fishing Foundation.

With about 500 exhibitors from over 65 nations and 20,000 visitors getting together at this year’s Aqua Nor, the Nor-Fishing Foundation wants to attract students from all disciplines to visit the exhibition to learn as much as they can about the industry and what it offers young people.

Haram told Fish Farmer that this was the first time a special student day had been arranged, although several hundred youngsters typically attend the show.

‘We do hope as many as possible will come

this year,’ he said. ‘We are interested in students from many kind of disciplines.’

Norway has developed a wide range of knowhow in the offshore petroleum industry and is considered a leading nation when it comes to seabed technology, said Haram. Now he would like to see the aquaculture industry develop excellence higher up the ‘water column’ too.

‘To help Norway become the leading seafood nation in the world, we want our aquaculture industry to be as good as possible.

‘We need many young people in order to reach the objectives that we have set. Anything from civil engineering, ITC experts and young people who are interested in politics, trade, marketing and economics.

‘I hope they will use the opportunity to get to know the aquaculture industry on Aqua Nor’s Student Day.’

Aquaculture, he said, is seen as an attractive career for youngsters in Norway, with courses in the subject becoming ‘more and more popular’.

‘This spring, the interest in some studies has increased by more than 70 per cent,’ he said, but the universities still need to turn out even more fish farming graduates to satisfy the demand – not just in Norway but globally – for aquaculture specialists.’

With the industry’s pioneers now reaching retirement age, will it be hard to generate the same sense of adventure among the new generation?

‘If we did not have such brilliant pioneers, we would never have been where we are today,’ said Haram.

‘Still, I see quite a lot of spirit, adventure and willingness among the youngsters. One change today is that students seek more cooperation with other student colleagues, who are not necessarily studying aquaculture.

‘This might help us to get new ideas and face the challenges that are there in other ways than we might have done alone. ‘I do also hope that this will help us to grow further environmentally.’ At Aqua Nor, 10 lucky students will be selected from around the country to receive free travel to Trondheim and free accommodation during the exhibition.

For all students, the day will open with a seminar featuring ‘top-notch speakers’, followed by lunch. There will be a chance for mingling and networking, sampling the delicious seafood products on display and, said Haram, ‘the participants will be given the opportunity to meet the exhibitors in what we call ‘speed dating’.

‘It will end with a happy hour, as a nice vorspiel [prelude to a party] to the coming Psterofestival- a music festival in Trondheim , which starts the same afternoon that Aqua Nor ends.’

“We need many young people in order to reach the objectives that we have set”