The SNP government has been accused of “letting Scotland’s fishing communities down” after it emerged a key skills diploma had zero entrants over the last five years.
Government agency Skills Development Scotland (SDS) works with training providers to deliver dozens of modern apprenticeship groupings each year.
But fresh research by the Scottish Conservatives has found the total number of starters in offshore fishing dropped to 22 in the last year, against the 34 fresh faces looking for work on deck, in the engine room and in port operations in 2019.
This was also the last year SDS recognised any starts to diplomas in sea fishing.
Douglas Lumsden, Scottish Conservative MSP for the North East region, told SNP skills minister Ben MacPherson his government is failing to get fresh blood into a “totemic” North East industry.
He said:
“Vocational qualifications are a vital route for young people to enter the fishing industry.
“They will be the new generation of skippers, deckhands and engineers taking on an important way of life in the North East and other parts of Scotland.
“But new figures I have obtained from Skills Development Scotland have shown no new VQs have been awarded in sea fishing since 2019/20.
“There were no North East starts at all last year.
“Fewer than five workboat diplomas out of just shy of 90 total maritime qualifications in the last five years.
“So I ask the Cabinet Secretary, what is this SNP government really doing to guarantee the future of a totemic industry for the North East, or is he content to allow the skills pathway to decline, taking a way of life with it?”
Mr MacPherson responded that there had been a “record number” of vocational qualifications this year, but recognised “there are a lot of opportunities in this region and some challenges”.
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Mr Lumsden said later: “There is a long-term problem here which has been going on for as long a time as we’ve had cuts to colleges like NESCol, who are trying to deliver these courses on a rapidly diminishing budget.
“Although people are finding their way into fishing, there should be a steadier flow of talent into the industry. It’s obviously a difficult job but the rewards are there.
“Leaving the industry behind is just letting Scotland’s fishing communities down.”
