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How CHAMP Informs the Transformational Clean Marine Apprenticeships of the Future

South Devon College’s CHAMP project Work Package 7 evaluates the impact on skills and capabilities needed to support the transformation and growth of the marine sector for the design, integration, build, operation, maintenance and through life/end of life support for clean propulsion systems.


The main focus of the report is centred on the Further Education sector as one of the CHAMP project objectives is to evaluate the skills and capability gaps that need to be resolved for successful delivery of clean propulsion technologies.


The first section of our report:

·       Determines a definition of “green skills”

·       Details the background and context of skills gaps in maritime

·       Summarises the, relevant to the CHAMP project, apprenticeships and qualifications

·       Maps those apprenticeships against IFaTE’s green themes

·       Identifies those UK training providers offering maritime specific qualifications and apprenticeships


As expected, the report identifies that people and skills are the key challenges for employers. In May 2023 Lloyds List Register conducted a decarbonisation survey. This survey revealed that 51% of respondents identified people and skills as the biggest risk to energy transition.


The final section and conclusion of our report will look to propose recommendations for solutions, taking outputs from other CHAMP project work packages as well as findings from our continued research.



In September 2023 we attended the launch of the UK Shipbuilding Skills Task Force report at London International Shipping Week. The UK Shipbuilding Skills Taskforce was established to build a collective understanding of industry’s skills needs and to make recommendations for how to resolve shortages.


The task force drew together the voices of not only shipbuilding employers but also education partners, training providers, the trade unions, and the cross-government policy community, including Devolved Governments. The UKSST’s report provides a clear route to achieve the task force’s vision, including the recommendation to convene a Skills Delivery Group, which will then have the potential to inform later sections of our report.


In this first section of our report we also identified, from details of a total of over 226 publicly funded UK colleges provided by the Association of Colleges and other sources, the number training providers offering maritime apprenticeships and full time accredited courses.


In the second part of this work package we will be analysing this information in more detail as well as determining training providers with relevant training capabilities developed outside of the marine sector (for example automotive).


We welcome the opportunity in 2024 to visit training providers in person in order to be able to include case studies in our report so that we might capture and disseminate some of the exceptional work by training providers in the development and delivery of green skills that can, or will, support maritime decarbonisation.

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