Irene is the Learning and Development Coordinator at Scottish Sea Farms. With responsibility for ongoing training and continual development across the company, she is currently completing an MSc in Organisational Psychology to further her expertise. Irene also fosters educational links within the local communities to promote the career opportunities within the aquaculture sector.
What inspired you to become involved in aquaculture?
Well… aquaculture was never my goal.
With a BA (Hons) in Language Studies with English and Spanish, I have always been interested in the world of learning and development.
So, in terms of what inspired me to move into aquaculture, it was the job itself: Learning and Development Coordinator.
Aquaculture has such a range of jobs available. In Scottish Sea Farms alone, there’s over 100 different roles across 14 departments. If you asked someone to name a job in salmon farming? The first answer on most people’s lips would be marine husbandry, yet there are many different roles and opportunities.
On a personal level, I like that I work for a company that emphasises learning and development across all departments; ensuring colleagues have the skills they need, both in terms of the here and now and to grow their own careers.
My role is always in demand. With over 650 staff at Scottish Sea Farms, there’s never a day off from ensuring that our teams are well-trained, working to the high level we strive for, and constantly improving.
That’s what keeps me in aquaculture; the growing understanding of ‘why’ we need to ensure we offer and prioritise continual professional development, and I get to implement the ‘how’.
Briefly describe your aquaculture career
My aquaculture career isn’t very long; I have been with Scottish Sea Farms since May 2022.
As the Learning and Development Coordinator, I have a very varied role. I work with everyone from farming colleagues across freshwater and marine, to our processing teams, to all the essential support functions ‘behind-the-scenes’. It’s a real privilege to have that access to colleagues at all levels of the organisation, across all our regions too.
I’m always striving to enhance our L&D offering. The training needed to work out on farm has moved on massively: from boat tickets to health and safety requirements, to all-manner of specialised trainings. I am constantly learning what’s available and ensuring that we keep our staff up-to-date and trained to the highest standards.
I never stand still. I’m always striving to move the team forwards and ensure everyone has the same appreciation for training that I do.
Which individuals in aquaculture have you found particularly inspirational?
This is a hard one – what does inspirational mean? I think it’s an individual, or an organisation, that I respect, that truly embodies their values and their way of working, and are committed to what they believe in.
The obvious name, outside of any colleagues in Scottish Sea Farms, is Heather Jones at the Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre. She’s not shy to say what she thinks, she doesn’t back down from what she believes in, and, through her hard work and dedication, we have WiSA (Women in Scottish Aquaculture).
How important has networking been to your career?
Networking ‘for your career’ to me is a misnomer. It’s creating the personal connections for yourself that is the real benefit.
The friends and connections I’ve gained through networking have helped in many ways. In terms of my role within the company, the connections I’ve made with UHI, DYW, and other companies in the sector have helped further my work into community and school engagement. This has been so varied: from offering support by acting as sounding boards, to offering opportunities including opening doors to careers days, and enabling the creation of our Into Aquaculture course with Oban High School.
On a more personal level, networking has helped in those stressful work moments. Finding others in similar positions to you, whether that’s with a focus on learning and development, community and school engagement, or working for a salmon farmer, I’ve met so many people in the sector who are so generous with their advice and guidance.
What do you think could be done to address inequalities in the sector?
Many of the inequalities in aquaculture aren’t sector-specific challenges; many sectors have inequalities to address, so the fact that we’re even talking about them and shining a light on challenges (both acknowledged and not) that face our colleagues is an important step.
The first thing to help address inequalities is just that – to talk about them. Being open about the challenges and being willing to learn about how to combat and reduce them, is really important. Sometimes people can be defensive when you raise concerns, but if you have everyone on the same side, trying to improve for all, then you’re working towards a common goal.
Behind this, there’s the requirement for support. Not just through talking or awareness raising, but by implementing concrete policies. There are inequalities across different areas, but the most obvious one is within family planning such as maternity and paternity leaves. There’s a clear difference in what’s offered, but that’s just one of the more obvious disparities. Updating policies to be gender neutral would help ‘level the playing field’ in many ways. It’s quite forward-thinking, but that’s what we as a sector (and as a culture) need.
Sometimes inequalities aren’t noticed or thought too deeply about, so it’s hard to start the conversations about them. But by making people aware of the challenges faced, you open the line of communication to get thoughts from all viewpoints – and ideally change policies for the better for all.
What is your proudest aquaculture-related achievement to date?
The implementation of our internal AquaLearn system – no small feat. When I started in May 2022, Scottish Sea Farms had just completed the onboarding of all staff as part of our Grieg Seafood Shetland acquisition.
What had been used before to track training rapidly became unsustainable as the company grew by a third effectively overnight.
My main task was to find a new method of tracking and recording all training, internal and external, as well as reminding staff when refresher courses or renewals were required. I had looked at commercial solutions, but none gave us the flexibility and functionality that we needed.
Working with our in-house IT team, they created a fully bespoke online environment that can now meet our requirements and offer all staff better sight of all the training that is available. They can also see their own documentation as well as any endorsements or medicals – where before I would need to manually send it out.
AquaLearn has the capacity to continue to develop too, as we update and refine how we measure our training and competencies internally.
A second achievement, and one that can’t be overlooked, is being invited onto the WiSA advisory group. I am passionate about diversity and combating inequalities in all aspects of life, so being able to steer a group such as WiSA, which has impacts across the aquaculture sector, is so important to me.
What advice would you give to someone looking to start a career in the aquaculture sector, or progress their existing career?
For someone looking to start, be ready to learn as much as you can. Even if you don’t work with fish, you’ll end up knowing more than you think about fish.
For someone looking to progress in the sector, be willing to continue learning as ongoing training is key. Network and show your competencies – as you progress, the number of available roles can become fewer in number so the ‘who you know’ becomes as important as the ‘what you know’.
For all, I’d recommend getting involved in mentoring, whether that’s through WiSA or another organisation, as finding people in the sector to connect with, and to gain insights and tips from, is such a valuable resource.
Where do you see Scottish aquaculture in 10 years?
I want Scottish aquaculture to be in a place where they put their people first; focusing on the people who look after our fish and apply that same care and consideration to them.
In part, that means a stronger focus on retention of our existing staff. It also means that we need to ensure we’re training people well and continually improving and upskilling them.
Aquaculture needs to ensure the working environment benefits all. From newcomers to moving uppers to long-standers, everyone has different requirements which need to be managed and tailored to them. It’s not a one-size-fits all, nor should it be.
The aim should be to create the best environment for all staff, men and women, to ensure that people come into aquaculture and stay. Retaining their knowledge and growing their understanding.
By motivating your people, and ensuring they stay with you or within the wider sector, you allow for innovation to bloom: trialling new ideas and methods of working to help move the sector forward and improve generation after generation.
To do this, we also need to be supported by the technology, not just out on marine sites but also for our other business functions. We need to see a seamless integration between training, finance, marine, IT, logistics, and more; having all functions of the business working together to their common goal of producing high-welfare Scottish salmon.
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