Support needed for IOW school’s Maritime Futures programme

Cowes Enterprise College, a secondary school on the Isle of Wight, needs the support of the maritime community to deliver its ambitious Maritime Futures programme.

The academy is pioneering an approach to maritime education where, for the first three years, every young person at the academy is taught maritime through mainstream subjects such as maths, science, and design technology. Working with local maritime employers, students apply their knowledge to practical projects such as boat building and voyage planning.

Maritime Futures aims to raise awareness of the maritime sector and, in the long term, contribute to filling skills gaps. The project is attracting national interest, with a qualifications group designing a brand-new GCSE equivalent vocational qualification for schools across the UK.

The school covers all the teaching costs of the programme but requires financial support from the maritime sector to provide those activities that bring the curriculum to life and create that spark of interest in the sector, e.g., visiting engineering facilities, boat trips for coastal environments, and hosting the community regatta that showcases students’ boat building projects.

It costs £55 to sponsor a student for three years of Maritime Futures, and a JustGiving page has been set up for donations.

For more information, email David Wilson, the project lead, or Rachel Kitley, the principal of Cowes Enterprise College.