The British Marine Federation’s annual awards are designed to celebrate Marine businesses and individuals that demonstrate outstanding success through investment in training.

In the Large Company Training and Development Award category, Mylor Yacht Harbour came first followed by Pendennis World Class Superyachts in second place.

Mylor Yacht Harbour has developed an entire company approach to development, encapsulated in a programme called “The Way Forward”. The original aim was to provide Customer Service training for all staff not only with reference to customers, but also staff internally. This proved to be a catalyst for change within the company.

 Staff now benefit from an understanding of roles right across the company: an accountant can have an understanding of osmosis and a shipwright can understand his own individual impact on capital expenditure. Training is now key to the future development of Mylor and each department now has a rolling two year skills and training plan, which covers apprentices and management training.

Pendennis introduced a cross company Apprenticeship scheme in 1988 which represented a revival of the traditional apprenticeship scheme but with a modern twist. The scheme was further developed in 2005 via the construction of a pathway for surface finishing meeting both a local and national need. This allowed Pendennis to develop a world class finishing team in the shipyard, and decrease the reliance on subcontractors.

Sarah Dhanda, Director of Training at the BMF said: “On behalf of the British Marine Federation I would like to congratulate all the winners and runners up. Their commitment to training is admirable and demonstrates the high quality of both training and trainees in the Marine Sector.