Scottish Apprenticeship Week 2023
James Fisher Offshore are proud to support apprentices in the workplace. We offer an apprenticeship programme where we provide hands on work experience, learning and development across several departments within our business.
In celebration of Scottish Apprenticeship Week we are highlighting just some of the work and activities that our current apprentices are undertaking.
Learning
As part of our apprenticeship programme, our first-year business administration apprentices are given the opportunity to experience how the different departments at JFO operate and to understand the different roles available and their responsibilities.
So far this year our apprentices have had sessions with the following departments:
Business Development, Decommissioning, SEABASS well abandonment and Finance.
Ellen, one of our 3rd year apprentices was recently asked to attend a strategy planning day in London. As part of her development and through her continued hard work, Ellen was selected to have input in the day and experience working alongside fellow colleagues of James Fisher and Sons Plc.
Two of our apprentices, Aaron and Jalissa will celebrate the completion of their apprenticeships at a NESCOL event later this week. Congratulations to you both!
"Doing a modern apprenticeship has been the best career decision I’ve ever made. All my course work has been helpful and relevant to my job. Its also been good to be able to complete my portfolio at my own pace and not feel rushed or overwhelmed. I had incredible support from Fisher Offshore and am looking forward to attending the NESCOL modern apprenticeship awards." Jalissa Donaldson
Safety
A safe driving initiative was recently set up where we were delighted to welcome Community Safety Advocate Russell Farquhar and colleague Stephen Scott from Fire Scotland to JFO to talk to our young drivers and yard drivers about safe driving.
Many thanks to them both for taking the time to educate our young drivers about the hazards of every day driving and the potential consequences.
Industry Events
Industry events are vital to not only learn and share knowledge, but as a way to engage with the supply chain and network. Over the past year our apprentices have been very fortunate to attend several industry events.
Our HSE Manager Darron invited the apprentices to join him at the Step Change in Safety event. Safety is paramount to any organisation and this event highlighted to our apprentices the safety culture within the energy industry and the reasons behind it.
A tour was arranged of training facility AIS Survivex to allow the apprentices to gain a better understanding of just some of the safety and technical training our offshore teams undertake.
An opportunity to visit the recent Subsea Expo event in Aberdeen to learn more about the subsea industry and meet face to face with some of our customers.
"So far during my apprenticeship I have been very fortunate and had the opportunity to attend a number of events including Subsea Expo, Step Change in Safety Awards, a Presentation by Chris Lemons and also visits to AIS Survivex and Rely on Nutec. Over the last couple of months we have been attending internal learning sessions, these have been very beneficial to us as it has given us an insight as to how other parts of the business work and what the different roles involve." Caitlin Robbie
Our apprentice Caitlin attended the OPITO annual Competence forum with Training and Competence Manager Linsay, which was hosted at Aberdeen Science Centre, where Caitlin was able to have a go at the interactive board in the OPITO Theatre of Energy.
Local Schools
We are proud to work closely with our Business partnership School Meldrum Academy, with events such as mentoring, Engineering challenge, careers Fair’s, S5/6 inductions, mock interviews, S2 parents evening and S 5/6 apprenticeship session as part of National Apprenticeship week, all taking place over the last few months.
Aaron, Nathan, Owen, Linsay and Katie, along with fellow Business Partnership group member Stork, and Lorraine Finnie from Meldrum Academy chatting to S5/6 pupils about Modern and Graduate Apprentice opportunities. This followed the S2 subject selection evening with parents who were also given apprenticeship information.
Our Training and Competency Manager Linsay took part in the S5/6 Inductions, which were based around presenting and leading yourself, as young people look towards the next step in gaining a place a university, college or gaining employment.
We are in our second year of mentoring pupils at Meldrum Academy. As part of the school’s commitment to Developing the Young Workforce it was recognised that establishing a mentoring programme would be an effective way to support young people prepare to move on to further/higher education or employment.
"Building a relationship and being able to offer advice and support as a mentor has been very rewarding. JFO is a supporter of #NoWrongPath and using this knowledge and my own experience allows me to be able to guide a young person on the options and opportunities available from school in to the workplace." Katie Johnston
Kai and Stevie returned to their old school Inverurie Academy to chat to pupils about their career options and apprenticeships in particular. Their ex-teachers also loved hearing about how well they are doing in their apprenticeships!
"During my time at JFO so far, I have almost completed all my IDCL exams, completed two college modules and halfway through my third. It’s been a great experience so far working at JFO with a great team and working environment. I feel like I am now working independently and taking on more within the company, now also taking over the facilities maintenance for the building and yard, as well as working closer with our teams in Houston and Mexico." Kai McLennan
Further Resources
We are very pleased to be signed up to the Young Persons Guarantee, and work closely with DYW (Developing the Young Workforce) If you would like to know about these, please visit.
https://youngpersonsguarantee.scot/
Skills development Scotland also have a range of webinars.
If you know someone who might be interested in a Modern or Graduate Apprenticeship or simply would like to know more about them, please visit
https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/what-we-do/apprenticeships/
Any queries or questions for JFO, please drop an email to t&c@fisheroffshore.com
