Blog post: Port visit to Shoreham Port

In March, PSS skills lead Angela Ward and health, safety, and culture lead Jen Maddison visited PSS member Shoreham Port to tour the facilities and learn more about the work the port is doing to continuously improve skills and safety. 

Shoreham Port is a trust port and the third-largest fishing port in England. It provides business units for 175 businesses and enables small and medium-sized enterprises to grow and expand into larger units.  

The visit was hosted by Alison Burstow, head of people and commenced with a tour by Dave Bunker, engineering manager (projects). Jen headed over to operations to meet with Nicky Brown, operations director and Lucy Pritchard, health and safety manager, while Angela met with the mechanical and electrical manager and mentor to all the ports apprentices, Richard Smith, and with Patrick Ovens, head of finance. 

Alison explained how the port has increased the number of work placements and internships it offers and how the model is working so well that the port receives a good number of quality applications for its apprenticeships. Angela heard how the apprentice recruitment process actively encourages parental engagement, by inviting them to a presentation at the port that provides information about the port, the apprenticeship vacancies and training to support the early stages of the process. 

Angela was pleased to meet some of the port’s first-year apprentices working in electrical and finance and heard about their journeys into a career in the port. The port aims to add more to its apprenticeship offer including digital marketing, data technician (sustainability) and business administrators (property and logistics) to the current apprenticeship offer. 

Jen learned about the diverse risks presented by the operations on the port and about the work the team has been doing to measure the safety culture of the business. Lucy shared how Shoreham Port is encouraging incident reporting, including the introduction of QR codes to allow easy access to incident reporting forms. The port has plans for future health initiatives too, to encourage colleagues to think about all aspects of fitness for work. 

It was great to discuss the services PSS offers to members and to find out more about how PSS can support Shoreham Port. 

Getting out and meeting members at their locations is an important part of PSS’s work, both helping us to understand our members’ needs and for members to ensure they get the most from their membership. To organise a tour of your port, please get in touch