Alfie Steer has chosen a different path to his friends. While they are studying for exams and filling out university application forms, the 17-year-old is setting his alarm for 2.50am and heading out to sea. By 5am, he is hauling crabs from the decks of his father, Alan’s, trawler.
“Yes it’s rough and wet – and rolly in winter – but I love it,” he says with a grin. “I’m the only one out of my friendship group who has a full-time job. That’s a good feeling. I get a wage, and it’s a job I might do for the rest of my life.”
Steer is part of a pioneering new scheme: England’s first modern fishing apprenticeship, launched earlier this autumn in south Devon. The result of years of work from industry leaders, the apprenticeship is seen as a vital part of efforts to ensure there will still be a British fishing industry when Steer is older.
From declining fish stocks to a recruitment crisis exacerbated by Brexit, the industry faces many difficulties, and enticing young starters into a physically demanding job isn’t easy at the best of times. So to draw them in, new apprentices are offered pay, a relationship with a specific employer and training for skills they could use throughout their lives.
