Catching up on skills at the fishing school

I enter a classroom at the Whitby and District Fishing Industry Training School where six fresh- faced apprentices are learning how to make crab and lobster pots under the watchful eye of their tutor, Jim Hebden. They knit blue twine into nets to cover hoops fixed to a wooden base. The pots will be anchored to the seabed and have to be strong enough to withstand seawater and the pull of the tides.

This lesson is part of the 10-week, school-based, one year apprenticeship in sea fishing. The Whitby Fishing School is currently the only place offering this qualification in the country.

After pot making the course gets tougher. Fourteen qualifications – also known as “tickets”– follow and include navigation, first aid, sea survival, fire fighting and radio communications.

Next, students spend extensive periods of time at sea. First on small pot boats catching lobsters and brown crabs and then on trawlers landing fish such as cod, hake, haddock and skate.

Years ago fishing around the East Coast of Yorkshire in places like Whitby and Scarborough was undertaken by fishermen who passed their skills, knowledge and boats from one generation to the next. The wages were low and the spectre of being lost at sea was ever present. There was a clear division of labour. Women remained on the land to bring up children and kept the home fires burning. Life at sea was considered too hard and dangerous for them.

During the 19th-century fleets of steam- powered ships equipped with new ice-making equipment meant massive quantities of fish could be landed and quickly transported by trains to far flung corners of the country.

Then the number of active fishermen declined as fishing stocks dwindled and jobs in cities enticed the younger generation to take up higher-paid, safer work. By the turn of the last century the fishing industry was in dire straits.

Anne Hornigold, chief executive of the fishing school, says: “Learning to fish had missed a generation and steps needed to be taken to train young people to revive the industry and promote its importance to the local and wider UK economy.

“In 2000 a small working party was set up to establish a fishing school located in the Whitby Mission and Seafarers’ Centre in Haggersgate. It included the Missioner, or chaplain, for the Mission for Seafarers, the charity supporting fishermen around the globe; Arnold Locker, a local trawler owner, and me. I was working for the Business Development Agency at the time” says Anne.

By 2002 the school had been established with financial support from the European Commission and by 2003 the first apprentices from the 12 month apprenticeship in sea fishing graduated.

Today, learning to fish is open to both men and women although Anne Hornigold, says “The presence of women on boats is shrouded with mystery and superstition. To this day it is thought to be unlucky if women come onboard. Any female apprentice, under 18 has to be chaperoned when at sea.”

Charlotte Boddy is 16 and has been an apprentice since this July. She will be the first female to qualify from the school since the apprenticeships were set up. Charlotte has been sailing with her father, who catches lobster and brown crab for a living, since she was six months old, following the death of her mother.

“By the time I was 10 I was working alongside my dad helping him to bait pots and haul them in when they were full.” says Charlotte. “He calls me the ‘knitter and splicer’ because I can knit the nets and splice rope better than he can” she adds with glee. “We work as a team and I know exactly what I have to do.”

Charlotte looks strong and speaks with a gentle, lilting north east accent. She tells me she was bullied mercilessly at school and how being on the boat saved her.

“The boat gave me freedom to be myself and I loved it. I just forgot about being bullied when I was at sea” she said. “My dad has changed tradition. The last crewman we had on our boat didn’t like working with a woman and my dad sacked him. If you are strong and fit you can fish regardless of your sex. I get on well with all the lads on the course, who treat me as one of them.”

Jack Brown, 20, has qualifications in catering, bricklaying, leisure and tourism. He is from Alnwick, Northumberland where the effects of the recession on employment caused him to look further afield for work.

“I knew nothing about fishing before I started the course. I was curious to know what it was like on board a boat. It was the mystery surrounding fishing and the excitement of being at sea that attracted me. My first day at sea was amazing. The views are wonderful and I felt a great sense of satisfaction at the end of a day’s work.”

“What this apprenticeship does is get the ball rolling for any off shore job,” adds Anne Hornigold.

“It qualifies you to work on a boat and start making a good wage. You can then go on to get other ‘tickets’ and become more specialised in areas like navigation. You can also work in the burgeoning off shore renewable energy industry; join the Royal or Merchant Navy, or work for the Maritime and Coastguard Agency.”

“The apprenticeship in sea fishing is directly transferable to many other more advanced maritime qualifications. Students can come back to the school after they have gained some experience and get further qualifications such as their ‘Skipper’s ticket’.”

I asked Jack what sort of person you need to work on a boat. “You need to be mentally and physically tough. You can be at sea for long periods of time living in close quarters with other crew. Teamwork is essential and you need to be personally resourceful.”

Anne Hornigold says students do not need any formal qualifications to join the course but they do need good references. I ask rather naively if prospective students need to demonstrate they have ‘sea legs’. “Constant balancing is required to remain upright on a boat which takes its toll on the hip and knee joints. Many students feel motion sickness when they first go out on a boat but in most cases symptoms improve as they get used to being at sea,” says Anne.

The apprenticeship is open to students between 16 and 24. The students are billeted in lodgings where they are looked after by a landlady. They have to register by phone at the school each day so that if there is a disaster at sea the pastoral team can reassure parents they know the whereabouts of all the students. Discipline at the school is tight as apprentices have to get used to working as a team in a dangerous environment. “This comes as a shock for some of the young men who think being away from home for the first time is a ticket for doing as they like” says Anne.

Every three months between eight and 12 new recruits join the course. Student accommodation is paid for by the Skills Funding Agency and there are no upfront course fees to pay. Tousled-haired Jack Sixsmith, 17, from Whitby, said he applied for the course because he is a keen fisherman, winning the annual Whitby fishing festival competition by landing a 12lb cod in 2012. He says: “The tutors are spot on. The course is practical and the theory classes are really interesting and relevant.”

While it remains a difficult job, the earning prospects for fishermen are much better than they once were, thanks to recovering fish stocks.

“If the apprentices are worth their salt they already have a job to go to by the time they leave the course,” says Anne. “Skippers will often offer a half share to an apprentice who has been working on their boat during their apprenticeship.”

She adds: “Fishermen work as 
self-employed share fishermen. When fish is sold at auction half of the money received automatically goes to paying for the upkeep of the boat. The rest is shared by the crew.”

The Whitby and District Fishing Industry Training School has gone from strength to strength recently, gaining national recognition for its work. In 2009 it helped change the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act which had threatened to place impossible requirements on apprentices to be paid.

This October it received two prestigious awards to add to its growing collection. It was highly commended as Outstanding Training Provider of the Year awarded by the Chartered Management Institute in London and highly commended as a finalist for the Chamber of Commerce, Bridlington Social Enterprise category.

The school has a constant stream of high profile visitors including Prince Charles.

Rob Green, an award-winning Whitby based seafood chef, says: “The school is a beacon of excellence. The dedication of the staff and students in helping to revive a flagging industry and their work is remarkable.”