Seafood Training Academy

As champion of the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing’s Seafood Network, the Seafood Training Academy provides a ‘one-stop-shop’ for the industry by offering high-quality advice, training and information to all onshore sectors of the industry.

The Seafood Training Academy creates a partnership between Seafish, Grimsby Institute and the four leading seafood schools to raise standards of training delivery and enable closer collaboration on skills and best practice. Employer partners include the Findus Group and M&J Seafood’s Ltd.

Through its HQ at the Humber Seafood Institute in Grimsby, its four training school partners in Billingsgate, Blackpool, Amble and Leeds, a national network of training providers and close links with industry, the Seafood Training Academy is able to offer excellent cost-effective and seafood-specific services, courses and training facilities to employers and their staff.

Pre-packaged qualifications and tailor-made training is available This gives learners the opportunity to develop skills and knowledge required to demonstrate their competence at work. Seafood smoking, quality assessment, knife skills, fish frying and food safety are among the many subjects covered by the courses and qualifications on offer at the learning centres.

The Seafood Training Academy plays a key role in developing qualifications for the industry. It worked closely with the National Skills Academy’s sister organisation, Improve, to develop one of the first Improve Proficiency Qualifications (IPQs) to become available. These IPQs in Fish and Shellfish Industry Skills are specifically for employees in the fish and shellfish industry. Learners obtain an award, certificate or diploma depending on the number of credits achieved and with more than 80 units to choose from, it is possible to build a qualification that is specific to the learner’s job role whether it is in retail, processing or manufacturing.

The Seafood Training Academy’s range of recognised training programmes represents the core training courses on offer to industry.

The Seafood Academy’s website provides a wealth of free information including eLearning programmes, DVD content, a library and access to all of the information leaflets about the Academy, its partners and the programmes they can deliver.

Seafood Training Academy Partnership
The Seafood Training Academy is a partnerhip that operates from the offices of the Humber Seafood Institute in Grimsby.

Seafish, the authority on seafood works across all sectors of the seafood industry to promote good quality, sustainable seafood.  For the onshore sectors, Seafish works closely with industry to address their training needs and through its UK-wide network of approved trainers is able to deliver seafood specific training that is nationally recognised and delivered locally.

Grimsby Institute is an Institute of Further and Higher Education with an international reputation in training and seafood.  It has a purpose-built food  training factory and state-of-the-art research facilities. It is a centre of excellence in food manufacturing, offering a wide range of technical qualifications and courses to the seafood industry.

Billingsgate Seafood Training School is based at the world famous London Fish Market. The school offers a range of courses to independent and multiple retailers, seafood industry professionals and the general public. It has excellent practical kitchens for fish preparation and cookery lessons and a professional fishmonger knife skills training suite.

The North West Seafood Training Centre works closely with Blackpool and the Fylde College and specialises in fish filleting training, while offering other training to industry and courses for schools.

The Seafood Training Centre North East  is based in Amble and offers a range of courses for industry, schools, the general public, and the unemployed seeking employment in the seafood industry.

The National Federation of Fish Friers’ Fish Frying School, is based at their Leeds HQ and offers a range of courses for new and established fish friers. The school has a preparation area and frying room equipped with two frying ranges, one traditional and the other high-efficiency.