Hospitality apprentices set for career at sea

The latest graduates on a hospitality Modern Apprenticeship (MA) aimed at the merchant marine industry are set to embark on their career at sea.

A partnership between west coast ferry operator CalMac and City of Glasgow College, the eight successful MAs will now take up full time roles as stewards with the company.

The year-long MA Hospitality with Maritime Enhancements involved classroom learning mixed with time spent training on-board some of CalMac's 33 strong fleet.

The concept was devised by CalMac specifically to fill a recruitment gap. 'Since we started exploring options for a training programme with the RMT trade union five years ago it was the start of a journey which has seen us at the forefront of innovation in maritime apprenticeships across the industry.  

'Every year we have sought to develop our offering, forge new partnerships and create more opportunities to provide long term seagoing careers for young people from the island and coastal communities we serve,' said CalMac's, Director of Human Resources, Christine Roberts.

'While the key element of hospitality is good customer service our stewards need to do much more than just make sure our passengers' have a comfortable journey. They need to be trained in in a full range of task that are needed to run a vessel safely and efficiently such as fire-fighting, first aid, rescue boat operations and other tasks vital for keeping passengers safe. This qualification will is the perfect foundation for building a career at sea,'

^{Picture shows: CalMac's Director of HR, Christine Roberts welcomes (LtoR) Fiona Halewood (Dalmally), Chisholm Campbell (Staffin), Megan Baillie (Stevenston) Nicola MacKechnie  (Isle of Seil), Eilidh MacMillan (Oban), Amy Hawkins (Largs) to the company.}  

As well as on the job training the MAs are now all qualified in hospitality (SCQF Level 5), maritime studies (SQA Level 2) and elementary food hygiene (Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland Level 2).

Last year CalMac's 33 strong fleet carried more than five million passengers to 27 island and remote mainland locations across the west coast.

This year the company has 20 Modern Apprentice places across Deck, Engineering and Maritime Hospitality. Recruitment opens on March 4 for CalMac's 2019 intake, for more information about up coming Modern Apprentice opportunities see calmac.co.uk/careers/modern-apprentice-week