Good practice:

Blue Career Centre Romania – training opportunities for marine fisheries and aquaculture sectors

The Blue Career Centre Romania was established within the MENTOR project – a partnership comprised of 7 partners from 4 countries, that aimed to support businesses in finding the right staff with proper qualifications and to provide prospects for young jobseekers in key Blue sectors: maritime transport (shipping, ports, ship-repairs and shipbuilding), cruise and nautical tourism, aquaculture and offshore oil and gas.
The project was developed in the context in which there was a frequent mismatch between training/academic qualifications and practical experience needed by the fisheries and aquaculture industries. Therefore, it can be considered a common effort to close the skills gap, tackle unemployment and make “blue careers” more attractive to the young people of Europe.
These objectives were achieved through the establishment of a Blue Career Centre Secretariat in Cyprus and representatives in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania, development of re-training schemes for blue professionals in the maritime sector, aquaculture and offshore oil and gas, development of e-learning courses, mentoring and career guidance to students, organizing Blue Career Fairs, balancing the demand and supply of maritime, aquaculture, cruise tourism and offshore oil and gas professionals.
The main beneficiaries of the MENTOR project were: employees in the maritime and aquaculture sectors, people that wanted to work in the mentioned sectors, students.

The project received funding from the Executive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (EASME) and the European Maritime and Fisheries Fund (EMFF). Overall budget: EURO 689.762; EC financial contribution: EURO 551.810 (80%).

Main outputs:
- 1 Blue Career Centre Secretariat in Cyprus and 3 Centres in Greece, Bulgaria and Romania
- 4 re-training seminars
- 5 e-learning courses
- Visits in 200 schools
- 8 Blue Career Fairs
- 1 Matching database for maritime and aquaculture professionals
These results sought to impact national policies regarding life-long training of the professionals, young job seekers in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors, improving public perception and appeal of maritime carriers.

Information not available.

The successful operation of the Blue Career Centres for the Eastern Mediterranean and the Black Sea will set an example and model for all other sub-sea basins so that in the near future we can have policies towards an European Network of Blue Career Centres that will bring together all the stakeholders of the European Marine, Fisheries and Aquaculture sectors and Maritime Clusters in the common effort to close the skills gap, tackle unemployment and make “blue careers” more attractive to the young people of Europe.

Moreover, the project shows how the improvement of knowledge and capacity of professionals, young job seekers in the fisheries and aquaculture sectors can have a real impact and increase the competitiveness of the domain. Even though this is a smaller initiative, it could, in the long run, inspire other public European entities to support trainings and life-long learning in aquaculture and try to achieve Policy change.