Sea Fisher Apprenticeship

Take your first step into a rewarding and well-paid career in the fishing industry!

Start your career at sea, with this amazing apprenticeship!

Are you after a rewarding, physical, job with plenty of opportunity to progress into a well paid career? If so, this could be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

As an Apprentice Sea Fisher with Supplytrain you will get an unbelievable introduction to the fishing industry by working across different boats, catching different fish and shellfish and learning from experienced crew and college staff, where you’ll pick up industry-specific qualifications worth £1,000s!

The life of a commercial fisher is both incredibly physically demanding and immensely rewarding. If you love the sea or working outdoors, don’t mind hard graft and want to help keep an ancient and vital industry thriving, then a job as a commercial sea fisher could be for you.

What you’ll do?

On this apprenticeship you will be involved in the whole fishing operation from sea to sale. This includes deciding which fish to catch, how best to catch them and where to sell them for the best price.

A typical day includes:

Ensuring the safe navigation of the vessel to and from fishing grounds
The construction, fitting and mending of fishing gear
Deploying and retrieving gear
Processing, storing and landing the fish and shellfish caught

You’ll also get involved in the collection of data for scientists and policy makers to help inform future policies to ensure stocks are fished sustainably and available to the next generation of fishers.

You could be out to sea for up to five days at a time and will get to interact with skippers, boat owners, crew members, fisheries scientists/observers, enforcement officers, harbour masters, fishery managers and fish market employees!

Where will this apprenticeship lead?

This apprenticeship isn’t just about learning to catch fish. The apprenticeship will give you an overview of all aspects of commercial fishing and a number of formal qualifications to take your career forward.

By taking this apprenticeship, you’ll have a much better idea of where you want to specialise and a breadth of experience to help you move into a well paid job.

After the apprenticeship you could work towards a career as:

An experienced deckhand (up to £50k a year)
A skipper (up to £80k a year)
An onboard marine engineer
An onboard chef
A fisheries scientist/observer
A gear technologist

There is also the possibility that you could own and operate your own fishing vessel in the future.

To find out more, keep reading or apply below. Once you apply we’ll call you to go through the job in more detail and answer any questions you might have.

Apply now

The basics

Wages

£10,982.40 + catch bonuses

Hours

Average of 37.5 hours per week

Start date

September 2023

Length of apprenticeship

18 months

Programme

Level 2 Fisher Apprenticeship

Where

Vessels will leave from major fishing ports along the south coast of England. Off-the-job training will be delivered from Noss-On-Dart Marina, TQ6 0EA.

Accommodation

Sleeping quarters are available on-board vessels that remain at sea for more than 24 hours. If you’re not local to a vessel’s home port, we can discuss living arrangements whilst you’re in port.

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The partners bringing this together

South Western Fish Producer Organisation is a membership body representing the interests of boat owners from across the south coast of England (and beyond) that want to, collectively, support new entrants get a thorough induction to the fishing industry. They will coordinate the placements, so you get to move from vessel to vessel, experiencing different types of fishing, with different crew members so you have a clearer idea of where your career lies on completion of this apprenticeship.

Although you will get to work on different vessels throughout this apprenticeship, experiencing different types of fishing, you will be employed and paid by Supplytrain CIC throughout the apprenticeship. You’ll be assigned an apprenticeship coordinator back on dry land, who will check in with you regularly and support you with any issues or queries about work or training. Towards the end of the apprenticeship, they will also help you consider ‘what’s next’!

South Devon College will provide a huge amount of training to supplement the on-the-job learning you receive at sea. In fact, your first two weeks in the job will be spent at their state of the art Marine Academy, learning the basics and gaining your Sea Survival Certificate so you are ready to go to sea. You’ll also come ashore for further training every few weeks to link up with the other apprentices, share experiences and gain £1,000s worth of further training and certificates – all whilst being paid!

Morrisons is supporting this multi-placement Sea Fisher Apprenticeship by paying for the off-the-job training you will receive in college, through an apprenticeship levy transfer. Morrisons staff will also provide input to the course, explaining what happens when your catch reaches the shore and why sustainable fishing is so important.

Interested? Apply now

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