Shipwrights

The impact of the pandemic on education and skills is well documented and necessitated some changes to the manner in which the Shipwrights’ Company delivered its support, but that support continued wherever possible and was arguably of even great significance. The aims of the Shipwrights’ Company include promoting and supporting excellence in every aspect of the maritime field, especially the craft of shipbuilding; promoting and supporting education and youth development programmes in the maritime area and promoting and supporting charitable causes in the maritime area. The Company’s support to, and engagement in, education takes many forms and some examples are below. Regular support to secondary schools is primarily focussed on George Green’s School on the Isle of Dogs and the London Nautical School in Lambeth. The Shipwrights’ Company enjoys regular contact with both establishments, providing them with a modest annual grant, funds prizes for an art competition and provides Liverymen as Governors. The Company also donates to youth organisations with a specific maritime focus: the Sea Cadets and the Sea Scouts. The Company’s support to universities continues with the award of twelve university bursaries per annum for undergraduate or post-graduate students of ocean and marine engineering, naval architecture or ship science at Newcastle University and the Universities of Strathclyde and Southampton. There is a dedicated Shipwrights’ Mentor affiliated to each of the three universities who are actively involved in assisting with the award of grants and the annual prize for the student coming top of their penultimate year’s exams. The prize winners are invited to collect the prize at a Court Meeting and join the Company for dinner where they will meet a large cross section of the maritime and marine sector. The travel bursary at Strathclyde enables selected students to take up work placements at home and abroad. In 2021 the Shipwrights’ Company launched MentorShip, which provides selected university students with the opportunity to be mentored by Shipwrights with established marine industry knowledge and experience during their university life and academic study and as they transition into the world of work. Through a process of voluntary informal mentoring and guidance, MentorShip offers students access to industry knowledge and experience, professional guidance, insights and advice and business networking. In the pilot year of AY 2021-22, the Company established twelve MentorShip pairings at two universities: Newcastle and Plymouth. The Company plans to expand the scheme to Strathclyde, Southampton and Liverpool John Moores University in 2022. The Shipwrights’ Apprenticeship Scheme has continued to encourage and assist small businesses in the marine and maritime sector to employ and train apprentices to a minimum of Level 3 and has enabled 104 small marine businesses to take on 122 apprentices since inception in 2014, by funding all or part of the first year’s salary of the apprentices. The Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (Furlough) provided much needed support to the businesses and apprentices enrolled on the scheme when Shipwrights’ grants were suspended but as firms were able to return to work Company funding resumed to deliver a full year’s salary for every agreed grant, albeit over a lengthier period - 20 months in one case. In Academic Year 2020-21 some thirteen apprentices from ten small businesses were supported and 2021-22 has seen nine small businesses awarded grants to support a further ten apprentices. Inevitably, not all grants have resulted in success but the Scheme’s retention rate continues to be well above the national average, sitting at a respectable 70%. As reported last year, the Company employs a full time Manager to run the scheme, supported by a team of committed Liverymen with the relevant business and apprentice experience to assess every application and provide successful employers with advice and assistance on education, training and development opportunities. None of it would be possible without the generosity or the numerous corporate and private donors who have funded the scheme, initially Lloyds Register Foundation and more recently the Stelios Philanthropic Foundation Apprentice and the Baltic Exchange Charitable Foundation, in addition to many Liverymen. Updates and case studies of the apprentices are regularly posted on the website at: https://www. shipwrights.co.uk/shipwrights-apprenticeship-scheme The Shipwrights’ Company provides grants to assist with tuition fees and the purchase of tools to eligible apprentices and students studying at marine and boat-building schools and colleges through its Billmeir award scheme. In 2020-21 the Company made thirty-one such awards to individuals training at nine separate establishments across the country from Cornwall to Glasgow and North Wales to Lowestoft. To date in 2021-22 fifteen students at eight separate colleges have received grants. The Company makes regular donations to the Tall Ships Youth Trust, Jubilee Sailing Trust and Ocean Youth Trust maritime and waterborne projects and activities which offer the opportunity for young people to learn new skills and develop. Recent examples include the Maritime London Officer Cadet Scholarship, the AHOY! Centre Charity, the Disabled Sailing Association, the High Tide Foundation and the Horizon who sought funding for a new safety boat. The Shipwrights’ Company continues its sponsorship of the Shipwrights’ Prize at the Institute of Chartered Shipbrokers. Skills and education in the Armed Forces are recognised