The annual Falmouth Marine School ‘Industry Day’ attracted over 200 students from local schools and colleges last week; they went along to find out more about the range of career areas and jobs available in the outdoor industry.

The annual event is part of the Marine School’s ongoing commitment to bring an increasing number of employers in to help design relevant courses as well as to talk to students. The opportunities in this industry range from coaching watersports and working with young children to boat repair, maintenance and engineering.

Representatives from outdoor education companies such as Neilson, Elemental, PGL, Mark Warner, Sunsail, Rockley Club Vass, South West as well as the Cornwall Marine Network were at the National Maritime Museum Cornwall in Falmouth from 10-4pm.

In the Education Room the companies each had a stall manned all day by their staff to talk to students and answer questions on jobs in their company as well as pathways to success.

In the lecture theatre representatives from the companies gave talks focusing on: what they do, where they are based, what they look for in their staff and the industry and job opportunities for students. Students were then able to apply for jobs and be interviewed on the day for the companies looking for highly qualified and appropriately trained staff to start work next summer This year Falmouth Marine School opened up the event to local schools, with over 20 pupils attending from Pool, Falmouth and Mullion schools.

Matt Maher from Mark Warner said: “The Industry Day is an event Mark Warner always attend. It is a good way for us to explain to students about what we do as a company and what marine careers we can offer them. We find the students who attend well presented, qualified, experienced and all with a keen interest in the marine industry. We have employed many students through the Industry Day who have had successful careers with Mark Warner.”

Steve Bowens, Course Area Manager, Leisure & Watersports at Falmouth Marine School said: "A fantastic day, I understand that Mark Warner recruited 11 new staff on the day and Susail, Neilson and PGL have taken large numbers of application form to go through and begin the interview processes. It was great to see all the students formally turned out with their portfolios and questions about the industry. The Marine Industry is in desperate need of well qualified and trained staff to work both in Cornwall and abroad. All the organisations who came along found the event hugely beneficial and I am getting lots of interest from other organisations who would like to come along and be represented. It looks like next year this event will expand to include more sectors including Marine Biology, Science, and more engineering, there will also be more local organisations coming along to inform the students what they are looking for and working closely with us at the Marine school to ensure we are providing the training which they required for employment within the sector".

The continued success of the Industry Day, now in its third year, means that next year the Marine School hope to make it an even bigger event, attracting even more students. Falmouth Marine School would like to thank everyone at the National Maritime Museum for their help in running the event.

Dave Linnell, Deputy CEO of Cornwall College commented: “It is great that the Industry Day was such a success. As well as helping students find employment it strengthens our ties with industry both locally, across the country and internationally.”

If you would like to learn more about any of the courses at Falmouth Marine School and meet the tutors and staff from the college, come along to our next Advice Session on Thursday 15th January 2009, 5-7pm. For more information please ring 01326 310310, email falenquiries@cornwall.ac.uk or visit www.falmouthmarineschool.ac.uk