Malin Group has joined BAE Systems, Babcock (Marine sector, Clyde), Dales Marine Services Ltd, Ferguson Marine (Port Glasgow) Limited, Peel Ports Group (Clydeport) and JFD Global as one of the founding members of the Clyde Maritime Alliance (CMA).
A shared industry voice for the Clyde
The CMA follows a process that began when businesses operating on the Clyde identified a shared opportunity: to work together so the region has the people, skills and capacity needed to deliver current commitments, secure investment and grow its role as one of the UK’s most important maritime centres, and to respond to Government priorities, including the Clyde Mission, with a shared industry voice. To build a clear, data-led understanding of the opportunity, the businesses worked with RAND Group to carry out a Clyde Maritime Skills Study.
One of the UK’s largest concentrations of maritime skills
The study underlines the scale of the Clyde’s maritime strengths. Five of the region’s largest maritime employers, Babcock Marine, BAE Systems, Dales Marine Services, Ferguson Marine and Malin Group, together employ nearly 8,000 people. That is close to the number of skilled workers recorded when RAND last benchmarked the workforce across Scotland’s shipyards in 2003.
This makes the Clyde’s maritime workforce one of the largest concentrations of specialist maritime and marine engineering skills anywhere in the UK, spanning structural trades, systems engineering, architecture and outfitting. With major programmes already underway and further opportunities ahead, the CMA has been created to help ensure that this expertise is retained, developed and positioned to support future growth across the sector, maximising the economic benefit to the Clyde and Glasgow City Region.
Building on the Clyde Maritime Skills Programme
Building on this evidence base, maritime employers worked alongside Skills Development Scotland, Glasgow City Region, local authorities and colleges to develop the Clyde Maritime Skills Programme, a coordinated response designed to address current and future workforce requirements across the sector.
Supported by £2 million of Scottish Government Economic Intervention funding, the programme enabled partners to test new approaches to skills development, workforce planning and collaborative delivery. The success of this partnership approach demonstrated the value of sustained industry collaboration and provided the foundation for the creation of the CMA, ensuring businesses can continue to work together to address skills challenges, maximise economic opportunities and support the significant pipeline of maritime activity planned for the Clyde.
The CMA’s priorities
The CMA’s initial priorities include skills and workforce development, inward investment promotion, collaborative funding bids, and the development and delivery of major strategic opportunities that have the potential to transform the Clyde maritime economy.
Central to this will be advancing the Scottish Marine Technology Park and Inchgreen projects, while bringing together industry, skills and public sector partners to unlock investment, secure further funding and maximise the economic benefits these developments can deliver for the region. The CMA plans to establish a small secretariat team to coordinate this work and support partners in developing funding bids and delivering these projects.
Read more: Why industry heavyweights are backing bid to take River Clyde into a new era (The Herald)