BlueEDU and
the fish production and processing industry

If you are involved in cage farming of finfish in any one of our 12 BlueEDU countries, we would be very pleased if you can complete our short survey.

Northern Europe
Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Finland, Faroes, Iceland

Southern Europe
Spain, Croatia, Italy, France, Cyprus, Greece

At the start of the survey you are asked to select the country and your job role, to ensure you are given questions that you can answer

Many thanks for your assistance,
John Birger Stav, BlueEDU Project Coordinator

Survey to document industry demand for skills, education and training.

This survey aims to document the current situation of education and training in aquaculture from the perspective of industry.
Duration: 5-10 min.

All answers will be treated anonymously.
Results will be published on the BlueEDU web site.

The aquaculture workforce development challenge

Most of the fin-fish produced in Northern and Southern Europe are reared in marine cages. Farms need to be managed and maintained by well-motivated and up to date workforce. Through their dedication and initiative, the industry can advance, grow and remain profitable.

However, aquaculture technology and equipment is becoming increasingly sophisticated. Computerised systems for environmental monitoring and fish feeding, surveillance and stock monitoring, are now well established. Cage farming systems have been getting larger and in some cases moving further off shore, to benefit from unpolluted, disease free waters.

Unsurprisingly, these advances have raised the level of knowledge and skills required by fish husbandry operatives and the site managers responsible for fish health, feeding and monitoring. As technology and production methods evolve, the updating of staff becomes increasingly challenging.

The responsibility for staff development commonly sits with human resources departments and senior farm managers. Assistance from education and training providers is often lacking or difficult to access.

Some fish farming countries have a good supply of well qualified young entrants from their national education system. For others, the availability of qualified entrants is poor. In most countries, mature entrants to the workforce are unqualified. The flexible work based training that they require to ‘learn whilst they earn’, is often lacking. Consequently, compared to other industries, the European aquaculture workforce remains relatively under-qualified.

By forming a more effective partnership the aquaculture industry and education and training providers could develop more effective work based training systems. The proportion of staff that hold recognised and respected qualifications could then grow, professionalising the workforce to support the expansion of fish production nationally.

The BlueEDU partnership

The Aquaculture Sector Skills Alliance (SSA) funded under the Erasmus+ programme was established during the summer of 2016.  Its mission is to help industry and education and training providers to address the workforce development challenge summarised above.

The Norwegian University for Science and Technology (NTNU) lead the project, working with partners from Scotland, Greece and the Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) in Belgium. As the ‘industry umbrella organisation’, FEAP are a key partner and they will mobilise the support and assistance of their producer organisation members.

What is the BlueEDU mission?

The BlueEDU partners will complete an investigative project, between December 2016 and the EO November 2018, to examine:

Skills needs and aquaculture education and training demand by industry

  • Forecasts of future company and national requirements for qualified staff in the cage farming sector (production and processing).
  • Improved definitions of the knowledge and practical skills cage farming husbandry staff and site managers require.
  • Definitions of the current and future cage farming knowledge and skills gaps at company, national and European level.
  • Forecasts of how technological advances will impact on cage farming knowledge and skills requirements.

The available supply of aquaculture education and training

  • An overview of European fish farming qualifications relevant to the cage farming fish husbandry and site manager occupational levels.
  • Awareness of the capacity of VET providers to develop high quality, accessible work based courses and qualifications.
  • More flexible and accessible courses and qualifications made available to work based learners on cage farms.

Which European countries are involved?

There are 12 European countries to be investigated by BlueEDU.

The work will begin in Northern Europe, where salmon and rainbow trout farming dominate, including; Norway, Scotland, Ireland, Faroes, Iceland and Finland.

It will conclude in Southern Europe, where the Sea Bream and Sea Bass are the main species farmed, including; Greece, Spain, Croatia, Italy, France and Cyprus.

What happens next when the investigation has finished?

The supply and demand data gathered and described above will be analysed for each of the 12 BlueEDU countries. The results will be used to develop a report and final proposal for improvements to aquaculture education and training that includes:

  • Additional aquaculture qualifications or modifications needed to address cage farming skills gaps identified in the BlueEDU countries.
  • Improvements to the quality and accessibility of work based training through the application of learning technologies and a revitalised partnership with industry.
  • Recognition of equivalent qualifications and the proposed harmonisation of qualification pathways.
  • Recommended collaborative groupings of countries with compatible qualification systems and a will to work together to improve aquaculture education, training and qualifications.

How will the work be conducted?

The BlueEDU partnership will seek the support and cooperation of the cage farming industry and education and training providers in the 12 BlueEDU countries with data collection.
The Federation of European Aquaculture Producers (FEAP) will engage and mobilise the producer organisations. They in turn will then ask their membership (company leaders) to support the BlueEDU project.

A combination of structured interviews, demonstrations, focus groups and questionnaire surveys will be deployed. Quantitative data will be gathered on the “skills and education and training needs for cage farming husbandry operatives and site managers”. Staff at all levels of the fish producing companies will be offered the opportunity to provide their views and to answer surveys, encouraged by their employer.

The education and training providers will be consulted to establish the aquaculture courses and qualifications that they offer. Their willingness and ability to develop improved ways of delivering work based qualifications will be explored.

BlueEDU contribution to Erasmus+ Aims

  • Modernising aquaculture Vocational Education and Training (VET) across Europe.
  • Enhancing Vocational Education and Training (VET) as a first choice, which is Priority 3 for the New Skills Agenda for Europe.
  • Deploying European Qualifications Framework (EQF) to enable different national qualifications in aquaculture.