October 05, 2021
New recruits to fishing set to benefit from money management training
The Seafarers’ Charity has worked with Seafish, The Money Charity, and other stakeholders to develop a new training course on money management for new entrants to fishing. The training will set new recruits on the right financial path and enable an understanding of how to manage fluctuations in income, the complexities of budgeting and making credit choices as well as the range of free resources which can help with money management.
The charity’s ‘Fishing Without A Safety Net’ research report highlighted many of the financial challenges facing share fishers and made recommendations for a range of solutions, including improving money management skills, to help build a ‘Safety Net’ to support the financial resilience of fishing families.
Simon Potten, Head of Safety & Training at Seafish explains, 'Most new entrants starting work in the fishing industry only receive basic safety training, often leaving them poorly prepared for managing their finances as self-employed share fishers. This course helps to address that gap by providing new entrants with a basic level of financial awareness that will enable them to better manage their finances and hopefully prevent them getting into financial difficulties. Seafish is delighted to be able to incorporate the course into its fully-funded 3-week Introduction to Commercial Fishing course and will be encouraging its network of Approved Training Providers to offer the course to new entrants attending basic safety training.'
Financial Capability Training with The Money Charity
As part of Seafish’s training programmes, Seafish will include a one-hour bespoke training course on money management for self-employed share fishers entering the fishing industry from October 2021.
The training course has been carefully steered by The Seafarers’ Charity who commissioned The Money Charity to develop the training. in partnership with a working group of industry stakeholders including The Fishermen’s Mission, Fishing Into the Future, the Fishing Animateurs and Seafish. The training will improve understanding of personal finance and money management and is the first-time a bespoke financial capability training course has been made available to the fishing community.
Catherine Spencer, Chief Executive of The Seafarers’ Charity said, ‘Our revealing research, Fishing Without a Safety Net revealed the precarious financial position of many small-scale fishers. We’re really pleased to work with The Money Charity and Seafish to ensure that fishers have access to information and financial capability training to support their money management skills and practices. We have already announced that the Commsave Credit Union is able to provide affordable financial services for fishers. Initiatives to improve financial capability, such as this new training course, a financial champions webinar and Commsave Credit Union are just some of many initiatives we are funding to help fishers thrive.’
Belinda Marozzi, Workplace & Community Programmes Manager at The Money Charity, said 'It’s been a pleasure working with The Seafarers' Charity to help support fishers with their Financial Wellbeing. The Money Charity’s vision is that everyone achieves Financial Wellbeing by managing their money well. We believe that Financial Education and Financial Capability are the key tools to unlocking Financial Wellbeing and Financial Resilience.
Fishers face a very specific set of financial challenges, but we believe that the tailored training we have developed will really help them to get on top of their money so they can make the best financial decisions for themselves and their families, and improve their overall wellbeing.'
Fishers already working in the industry who would like to access financial training can contact Seafish. More information and a range of financial capability tools and resources to support fishing families to better manage their money are available at www.fishingsafetynet.co.uk.
