Minnows into seadogs: inside England’s new fishing apprenticeship | Fishing

Alfie Steer chose a different path to his friends. While they study for exams and fill out university application forms, the 17-year-old sets his alarm clock for 2:50 a.m. and heads to the beach. By 05:00 he is pulling crabs from the decks of his father Alan’s trawler.

“Yes, it’s rough and wet – and rolling in the winter – but I love it,” he says with a smile. “I’m the only one in my friendship group who has a full-time job. It’s a good feeling. I get paid, and it’s a job I can do for the rest of my life.”

Steer is part of a pioneering new scheme: England’s first modern angling apprenticeship, launched in south Devon earlier this autumn. The result of years of work by industry leaders, the apprenticeship is seen as a vital part of efforts to ensure there will still be a British fishing industry when Steer is older.

Of declining fish stocks to a recruitment crisis exacerbated by Brexit, the industry faces many challenges, and attracting young starters into a physically demanding job is not easy at the best of times. So to draw them in, new apprentices are paid, offered a relationship with a specific employer and training for skills they can use throughout their lives.

The 14 apprentices in the program split their time between working on boats and taking courses at a college on the banks of the River Dart. Here, in a space equipped with training boats and rooms ready for netting and rope work, they learn the practical skills of the trade.

The head teacher, Mark Day, himself a former fisherman, says the teaching is aimed at retraining the entire industry. “There are two main practical elements to our course: rope work and net making. A lot of time is devoted to these skills,” he says.

“In the past there would have been people on board who could do that, but with the pressure the industry is under now, there just aren’t that many crew on board. So these young people will not be as experienced as other crew members, but they will be in the top 10% of deckhands in terms of the skills we have taught them.”

The boats students are sent to vary widely, from family scrappers like Alan Steer’s to larger trawlers. Back on land, students get a chance to analyze and talk through the experience before starting practical work.

Adam Kennedy (21) has – to the surprise of those who know him – traded a job in retail for a new career in fishing. “I was working in Sainsbury’s when I saw the ad,” he says with a laugh. “I was just on holiday on boats, and I live in Birmingham, so it meant leaving all my family behind to come here to Devon.

“When I told my family and friends, they couldn’t believe it: I’m quite a shy person. They were all surprised.”

But he is already addicted to his new life. “I love the excitement and adrenaline rush of being at sea. I work on a rather large boat: a sculoper. The first trip was difficult, four or five days out. But you are so tired at the end, you immediately fall asleep. It’s a funny experience – when I tried to pick up the fish, they kept flopping out of my hands. I didn’t mind it, it was great to be outside.”

Alan Steer, Alfie’s father, is a third-generation fisherman who grew up in Beesands, a fishing village in Devon where family businesses have now all but died out. “Growing up, I learned a lot from my dad, about going crab fishing, which was fantastic. But if you study at university, you can learn about nets, how scallop dredging works, how bigger boats navigate. This is what the apprentices will get.”

This broader understanding of the industry is what young people need now,” he says. “When I started working on sustainability, I didn’t know how much I didn’t know until I met people in other types of fishing, as well as scientists and policy makers. Then we can all start thinking about how to solve each other’s problems.”

Support for the apprenticeships has come from a wide range of fishing-related businesses, from large trawler owners to supermarket chains. Morrisons has given £100,000 to fund the training of 10 of the new apprentices, who will be linked to the South West Fish Producers Organisation.

Katie Hooper, an adviser to Seafish, the industry skills council, says the industry wants more young entrants. “We have lost foreign workers since Brexit. To come now, they would need a skilled worker visa, and that is expensive.

“But it’s also the mentality that has changed around fishing. We still have fishermen – like Alfie – who had a grandfather and father who did it, and who always knew they wanted to do it too. But now young people are generally in school until they are 18.”

“Fishing is a lifestyle. Yes, it’s demanding, but you’re outdoors, it’s skillful, it can be very rewarding and there are lots of opportunities for career progression.”

Andrew Pillar, director of Plymouth-based trawling company Interfish – sponsor of one of the apprentices – points to the huge sums being invested in British fishing as a sign of optimism. “We are positive and we are in a vessel renewal phase. Fishing has the unique ability to reach coastal communities and provide well-paid skilled employment.”

Spart of that investment is about changing the traditional experience of fishing boats as difficult places to work, sleep and eat. Some are now equipped with TV, wifi and comfortable bedrooms. One apprentice, Archie Cox, is on a new vessel. “It’s only six months old and recently had £4.7 million spent on it,” he says. “It has air conditioning, nice and comfortable beds, wifi, everything you need. It’s brilliant.”

Day, the tutor and ex-fisherman, laughs at how far things have changed in fishing: “Satellite TV on the boats! My father would turn in his grave.”

He adds: “We’re instilling in these young guys that the regulations are there to create a sustainable future for fishing, so their career won’t be over when they’re 30 because there’s no fish left.

“Our industry has always had challenges. I remember during the miners’ strike when there wasn’t enough fuel for the boats. And with Covid we thought that was it for fishing.

“Yes, Brexit made it more difficult to hire from overseas – but foreign teams were always only a short-term answer. We’ve had kids apply to this course from all over the country: Birmingham, Liverpool, Newcastle. We never thought we would have so many applicants – it was funny to get 150 for 14 places.”

“I hope to see them all come back here to do their captain’s ticket in a few years.”