UKSA inspires and supports children and young people to broaden horizons through life enhancing water-based adventures, education and training for careers at sea. As the world’s largest maritime training provider, it provides a range of tangible pathways for people to start a range of careers in the marine industry.
As UKSA’s PR agency, we have been working with them on one key strategic ambition - to raise awareness of the opportunities there are for young people from all walks of life.
One of the main cornerstones for our work in this area was to look at the wider industry’s position and ambition’s on this. In 2019, the UK’s Department for Transport launched its first ever long-term strategy for the UK maritime sector. The Maritime 2050 strategy outlines a range of short, medium, and long-term proposals, including developing technology, people, and infrastructure, to ensure the ongoing development of the maritime industry in the UK. One of its specific ambitions is to: “grow the UK’s maritime workforce and transform their diversity enhancing our reputation as the world leader in the provision of maritime education and training”.
The report highlighted significant skills and diversity gap across the sector. With this in mind, UKSA set about to develop strategic partnerships in order to tackle this head-on.
The first partnership saw UKSA team up with superyacht brokerage house, Edmiston to increase the diversity of the superyacht industry. This partnership has culminated in the launch of the Edmiston Foundation, which will target young people from underrepresented and disadvantaged backgrounds and give them the opportunity to pursue a career in the maritime industry with access to a fully-funded course followed by direct employment opportunities.
The second partnership sees UKSA partner with She of the Sea as one of its Pledge signatories. She of the Sea holds the clear vision of a high performance, competency focused yachting industry, regardless of gender, race or any other factors. It recognises that people are organisations’ greatest assets, and that the cultures we build now will be critical to the sustainability of the industry.
For both announcements, we have worked with UKSA to maximise exposure for the partnerships, rolling out robust media relations programmes to secure media coverage, not only in the superyacht and marine media, but into regional, national, broadcast, further education and lifestyle titles delivering exceptional exposure for this critical effort and for UKSA.