Marine Skills Centre Celebrates Third Birthday
Poole’s Marine Skills Centre is celebrating its third birthday having seen almost 10,000 people from the area’s thriving marine industry use its facilities.
The centre, which is funded by the South West of England Regional Development Agency (RDA), opened in 2004 and has just started the college year with more students than ever before.
Based at Fleets Corner on the Nuffield Industrial Estate, the Marine Skills Centre specialises in marine engineering and provides a wide range of apprenticeship programmes and short courses that are tailor-made to meet the needs of local marine businesses. It is home to Paragon's marine division for Dorset, which provides most of the apprentice training on site together with a range of MCA and RYA certified courses.
The Centre is also home to Poole Harbour Sea Survival, which runs several RYA sea safety and shorebased courses, and Independent Maritime Security Associate, which runs ship security courses.
Rob Peters, the South West RDA’s enterprise manager in Poole, said: “Across the South West the marine sector is worth about £1 billion to the economy and employs 32,000 people in 2,700 businesses, so it’s a priority sector for RDA support.
“Our role is to target our investment to unlock the region’s business potential and Poole’s Marine Skills Centre is an excellent example of that.”
Paul Santer, human resources manager at Poole-based Sunseeker which uses the centre for all its training said: “We’ve just taken on 34 new apprentices and all of them are being trained at the Marine Skills Centre. It’s a fantastic resource to have on our doorstep because we’re looking at major expansion at our new production facility at Osprey Quay at Portland where we expect to increase staff numbers from 50 to 500 in the next four years.”
Another local business using the centre is Poole Marine Services, one of Poole’s leading marine engineering leisure companies.
Justin White, manager of Poole Marine Services, said: “All of our engineers are having or have had apprenticeships with the Marine Skills Centre, which has grown from strength to strength and is absolutely essential in this thriving marine area. The comprehensive training programmes, combining theoretical and hands on experience, have allowed us to get the very best out of the staff that have used the centre.”
Such is Poole’s reputation that national organisations including Honda Marine and the Metropolitan Police use it for all their apprenticeship training. And the centre is one of only two places outside the US that is accredited to deliver American Boat and Yacht Council (ABYC) Electrical Certification courses.
The centre boasts extensive and fully-equipped workshops, classrooms, meeting and conference facilities, and has recently invested in a new outdoor marine engine testing facility and water tank.
For more information on Marine courses, click here.
