With two weeks to go, Seafarers Awareness Week 2016 is shaping up to be the biggest campaign yet, since its inception by the charity Seafarers UK in 2010.
Seafarers Awareness Week, slated for June20-26, will this year showcase Maritime Jobs for Future Generations, and there has never been a more timely campaign to promote U.K. maritime careers and employment opportunities, both at sea and ashore.
Recent reports, including the U.K. Gov.U.K. Shipping Fleet Statistics 2015 and the BIMCO/ICS Manpower Report, have revealed a growth in U.K. merchant shipping and a forecast huge global shortfall in the number of seafarers, including deck and engineering officers.
Seafarers Awareness Week provides an opportunity to promote the U.K. maritime industry’s contribution of £11 billion a year to the economy while supporting more than 113,000 jobs.
During Seafarers Awareness Week a host of activities across the U.K. will see the participation of key organizations including IMarEST, Maritime Educational Foundation, Merchant Navy Training Board, Nautical Institute and UK Chamber of Shipping. The week, sponsored this year by Inmarsat, also encompasses several maritime training establishment events, in Blackpool, Dartmouth, Liverpool, Newcastle and Southampton.
All registered events, including some taking place just before or after the week, are promoted on the Seafarers Awareness Week website: www.seafarersweek.uk.
Complementing the Seafarers Awareness Week events and intensive media relations activity is a campaign encouraging primary school teachers and children to think about the maritime world and how 95 percent of U.K. imports come by sea, including half the nation’s food.
Seafarers UK, partnered with Fyffes, has created interactive materials starring the banana character Freddy Fyffes, enabling young school children to take part.