Cowes Enterprise College shortlisted for prestigious Maritime UK Award

Cowes Enterprise College, which is part of Ormiston Academies Trust (OAT), has been shortlisted for a prestigious Maritime UK Award, in recognition of the academy’s excellent work embedding maritime learning into the curriculum.

The academy has worked collaboratively with the maritime sector to create this curriculum, and has local maritime experts such as divers, naval architects and maritime conservationists support specific lessons.

Maritime content is woven through traditional curriculum subjects and applied to practical projects like boat building, sail design, and presentations on coastal management. Students are also given exposure to the breadth of roles in maritime industries through stimulating careers encounters and maritime field trips.

The academy is now developing the scheme in four additional coastal schools in Grimsby, Ipswich and Merseyside, with schools from Cornwall also interested. The initiative has the potential to get maritime into mainstream educational schools across the UK.

The scheme is helping to create job opportunities on the island, while simultaneously bolstering the maritime industry – worth £46.1bn to the UK economy – by addressing the skills shortage. It offers coastal communities a way of capitalising on their maritime location, tapping into the diverse and burgeoning maritime sector to engage and inspire students.

The Maritime UK Awards are to celebrate the sector and are open to organisations from right across it and its component shipping, ports, services, engineering, and leisure marine industries. The 2022 awards will enable many of the projects being delivered to be brought to national prominence. 

Rachel Kitley, Principal at Cowes Enterprise College said:

“We are so proud to have been shortlisted for a Maritime UK award, which demonstrates how instrumental the work we are doing is in supporting the wider sector. This shortlisting is a real testament to the hard work of both students and staff to embed maritime learning into our curriculum.

“Here on the Isle of Wight there is a thriving maritime industry, which brings amazing opportunities to people both on and off the island. We are pleased to be a central part of ensuring that more of our young people will be aware of and have access to these opportunities.”