Processing News
Seafood industry skills initiative launches Seafood businesses in Scotland will be offered a new set of training packages as part of a Business Improvement Programme launched by Seafood Scotland
Above: Business improvement programme
SEAFOOD SCOTLAND has been awarded £100,000 of funding from the National Transition Training Fund and Skills Development Scotland to support onshore activities of seafood businesses across the country, upskilling and training employees to support
company growth. The programme will provide bespoke training packages to companies to help support their objectives. Free webinars and funded courses will be available to meet business and team needs and strategic goals. Companies will have
access to over 60 courses covering four key training areas: • upskilling and multiskilling staff – training for employees and teams; • career recruitment and retention toolkits for businesses – helping them to develop recruitment and
retention policies; • process automation and business implications; and • women in Seafood in Scotland. The programme will be delivered to current staff members over the age of 25 using flexible and hybrid methods, such as self-taught online modules and guided virtual sessions. Courses range from fish frying, knife skills and monger training to customer and human resource services, as well as guidance on business planning and strategy. Donna Fordyce, Chief Executive at Seafood Scotland, said: “It’s important that the businesses in our onshore seafood
We will help “ companies plan their training opportunities
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sector continue to grow and this funding can help them do just that. With the support received from the National Transition Training Fund and Skills Development Scotland, we will help companies plan their training opportuni-
ties and the courses available to them in line with their business objectives. “The window for this funding is open until March and I would strongly encourage any onshore seafood businesses to take this great opportunity to upskill and train staff without the burden of additional costs.” The National Transition Training Fund was launched in 2020 by Skills Development Scotland following the rise in unemployment due to the Covid pandemic. The scheme aims to give individuals the opportunity to gain industry-recognised qualifications to help find employment.
Want not, waste not for Seafood Village The UK’s largest fish-processing complex has recently set an impressive new recycling record. In the past year it has successfully disposed of 240,000 polystyrene boxes – enough to fill more than 100 40-foot long vehicle trailers – plus 6.2 tonnes of cardboard and 3,500 wooden pallets. The Seafood Village is a large business park focused on processing. It is home to 21
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different seafood companies working on fish of all types, farmed and wild caught. Seafood Village Joint Managing Director Peter Dalton said: “Gary Cadey [also Co-Managing Director] and I are very proud with what we have achieved. “If you put all the polystyrene boxes end to end they would stretch for 17 miles – and that is a lot of polystyrene needing to be recycled. They are ground
down and made into new boxes again. And the same goes for the wooden pallets.” The Seafood Village team worked closely with Adrian Rowlands from the recycling company Enviro Grimsby. Dalton said: “They were very helpful and guided us through what we should do. We set up a compound in the middle of the village with a special section where users could put their waste, and the response was great.” He said fish, by its nature, created a lot of packaging waste, which is why it was important to establish a proper scheme. Grimsby Seafood Village is the brainchild of Dalton and Cadey, who changed the face of seafood processing in Grimsby by bringing companies together and sharing common facilities rather than have them scattered over the fish docks. The park opened in 2012 and
is now full, home to more than 20 firms processing everything from cod to salmon. “We are getting an increasing amount of salmon from Norway and Scotland these days,” Dalton said. “Fortunately, we have managed to weather the pandemic quite well and the firms down here had very few people on furlough.” He said fish remained popular with the public, but had become quite expensive in recent weeks. Left: Grimsby Seafood Village Above: Polystyrene box
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11/01/2022 14:06:45
