New premises for Seafood Training Centre North East

The Seafood Training Centre at North Shields was established in 2001 primarily as a fish filleting training school. However, over the years, it has grown and has recently secured over £1m of funding over the next three years.

The Training Centre has recently moved into purpose built premises, enabling it to offer a wider range of courses, including a Seafood Prep Course, primarily to educate sixth form students in the preparation and cooking of fish dishes. It also runs ‘fun courses’ for the public, where the art of filleting can be learnt and Taster Courses for young people that want to go to sea.

The centre also offers courses in Level 2 Food Safety, Level 2 Health & Safety and a number of other courses for fishermen including training to enable skippers to achieve their tickets.

For further information, please contact 0191 296 1925.

Second Advanced Seafood Quality Assessment Course introduces a new species.

The week-long course was delivered at Fishgate Fishmarket to a team of managers from M&J Seafoods Ltd and to Adam Fanthorpe from North Quay Seafood in Grimsby. In a major change from the previous course, participants were able to apply their new knowledge to the assessment of farmed salmon quality.

As is standard with this advanced programme, there is a minimum of theory and a maximum of hands-on practical application of both the Torry freshness scoring system and QIM (Quality Index method) assessment schemes. Participants work in groups and as individuals to hone the accuracy of their assessments of both raw and cooked seafood. During the course, the eyes, gills, flesh and taste of more than 50 fish are carefully examined.

At the end of the course, participants are trained to a level where they are able to distinguish a Torry 8 plaice from a Torry 7 plaice. They also have the opportunity to assess the cooked quality of cod, plaice, and smoked fish from three of the local supermarket seafood counters.

After attending the course, individuals can return to their businesses and make a positive difference in how seafood quality is assessed. They can also choose to become seafood quality trainers with the support of Seafish and The Seafood Training Academy.

The third Advanced Course is to run from the 14 April 2008 at Billingsgate Seafood Training School. Bookings are now being taken. For more information email academy@seafish.co.uk or go to this webpage

New Motivation and Training Guide completed

Seafish has developed a new guide for owners of small seafood businesses on how to motivate and train their staff. Aimed predominantly at owners of fish and chip shops and independent fishmongers, the guide can also be used by small seafood processors and wholesalers. For a free copy of the guide please email Training@Seafish.co.uk with your contact details.

Billingsgate Seafood School in the News

Following on from the recent visit to Billingsgate seafood Training School by the Blue Peter team, the school has featured on the BBC’s working lunch and had an article on their courses published in the Times on the 16th February. If you missed either of those then you can see them again by following the link from the Academy site as usual.

Billingsgate Seafood School also hosted a successful one-day conference on sustainable seafood on the 27th February 2008. For a full report on the conference follow this link.