The Millennium
New recruits are vital to Marine Harvest’s expansion – and to plugging the industry’s skills gap
Marine Harvest (Scotland) Ltd is a company that prides itself on providing a safe and enjoyable working experience, and of offering a career structure that allows its employees to improve and challenge themselves, and to rise up within the company. As such, staff retention is excellent, demonstrated by the number of employees with over 20-25 years’ service. However, the company is also conscious of the importance of bringing new blood into the organisation, particularly in the light of a potential skills gap that is facing the industry as a whole. So, in 2012, Marine Harvest (Scotland) Ltd developed an in-house apprenticeship scheme to encourage young recruits into the company and to offer them the relevant skills training and experience to create a workforce to cope with the company’s increasing size.
‘In February last year we agreed that we would take on two apprentic- es a year, who would be exposed to all parts of the industry’, explains Human Resources Manager, Vicky Ferguson. ‘We are looking for school leavers with good standard grades in at least English, maths and a science, plus a driving licence, as the first six months of training is in particularly remote areas of the country. In 2013 we took on Ross MacDonald and Cameron MacDonald, and introduced them to all areas of the business: freshwater, sea water and processing.’
Ross and Cameron have now both completed their apprenticeships, which included an SVQ L2 in aquaculture, which was taught by Murray Stark at Inverness College, part of the Highlands and Islands University, as well as an impressive number of practical courses. ‘In-house training includes: a boat course; sea survival; fish health; feed; health and safety; chemical handling; and finance’, Ferguson explains. ‘If the apprentices gain these various qualifications they will be guaranteed a position, although they will be expected to relocate to any site within Marine Harvest (Scotland) Ltd.’
Feedback from Ross and Cameron, and those entrusted with supervising them, has been good. ‘We manage them very carefully, because as they are coming straight out of school and being thrust into a working environment – particularly one as demanding as this one – it can be a difficult transition’, says Ferguson. ‘But they coped very well, which is fantastic.’
Ross MacDonald, from Lochaber, has nothing but praise for the Marine Harvest apprenticeship. ‘I’ve thoroughly enjoyed the programme’, he says. ‘It gave me a full overview of salmon production, covering everything from rearing eggs, looking after fish in both fresh and sea
water, to harvesting and processing. I particularly enjoyed learning how to undertake regular fish health checks and how to measure welfare standards by sampling and testing environmental conditions.’
Ross has been offered a full time position with the company and will be based around the Fort William area, ‘where I’ll be part of a mobile team going around all of the sites in the Fort William area, checking fish for sea lice’, he says, ‘which is great because it means I can live and work in the area where I grew up. I had never heard of Marine Harvest before I saw the apprenticeship advertised in the local paper – in fact I wanted to be a police officer. But I haven’t looked back and there’s a great career with Marine Harvest; I hope to rise up within the
I hope to rise up within the company and eventually be in higher management”
company and eventually be in higher management.’
Cameron MacDonald has just completed his Marine Harvest apprenticeship and, just like Ross, he has found the whole experience thoroughly enjoyable. ‘The great thing about the apprenticeship is that you get to see every aspect of the company’, he says. ‘I didn’t know much about Marine Harvest prior to my interview; before that I was working in a bakery in Stornoway, which is where I’m from, and I was thinking about joining the army because job opportunities on Lewis are limited. I’m glad I decided to do this – it’s great being outdoors and I love working with boats. The career opportunities with Marine Harvest are fantastic; I’m only nineteen and I’ve already started a pension.’