Ancient boatyard brings award winning practices to Seawork
Masfords has been named South west Employer of the Year for providing staff at the ancient boatyard with the latest training opportunities.
An historic Cornish boatyard will be celebrating at Seawork 2010 after being named South West Employer of the Year for its outstanding dedication to developing the skills of its staff.
Mashfords of Cremyll in Torpoint was recognised for its commitment to its employees after entering an impressive 27 of its 32 strong workforce into Cornwall Marine Network’s training programme last year. Its aim was to bring the renowned but ageing business up to date with 21st Century staffing practices and training opportunities. It is already reaping the rewards in terms of employee’s job satisfaction, motivation and an enhanced pride in the company.
Mashfords boatyard is steeped in history. Clients range from the Ministry of Defence and Serco to fishing boats and private yachts. It has six slipways which can slip vessels of up to 300 tons on its larger slipways and accommodate up to 80 tons on covered slips. There has been a boat yard established in Cremyll for over 200 years.
Richard Porter, Mashfords general manager said, ‘It is fantastic news for a small company of our size to be recognised for our efforts in the training of our staff. This means a lot to us and would not have been possible without the assistance of Cornwall Marine Network.’
Mashfords dates back more than 80 years and its staff welfare procedures had until recently remained virtually unchanged over the decades. While employees had huge expertise in their areas, they did not have any qualifications recognising their skills.
Initially some staff found the prospect of returning to education daunting. Many of the shipwrights, boat builders, engineers, plastic specialists, welders and riggers joined the company straight from school. Two have worked there for more than 30 years and about a third have worked there for ten or more years.
Concerns were soon allayed when each member of staff had a one to one meeting with Cornwall Marine Network’s training team and 80% of the workforce signed up to the scheme. The ongoing training has been funded by the ESF Convergence Key Sectors programme and covers everything from maths and literacy, and NVQs in business administration, marine engineering and team leading.
It has proven very positive in consolidating the staff’s knowledge, increasing their confidence through achieving qualifications and bolstering camaraderie as they work towards their course assignments.
Mashfords’ director George Thornhill said, ‘The news of this award was a fantastic surprise and a great achievement for all Mashfords management and staff. We look forward to continuing everyone’s future training and development in conjunction with Cornwall Marine Network. The construction of our new meeting and training room should greatly assist this process in the future.’
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