Malakoff Limited were announced as sponsors for next summer’s Tall Ships Races here in Lerwick on an in-kind basis back in August. Recently we spoke with Contracts Manager Ryan Stevenson to discuss the company’s support for the event. Malakoff made the decision to sponsor the event as they see this as a great opportunity to not only support a large community event, but it also provides them with a unique chance to train their young workforce on how to work and manage a large-scale event like The Tall Ships Races. Malakoff sponsored the previous Tall Ships as Ryan Stevenson tells me “We provided sponsorship at the last Tall Ships Races here in Lerwick, and we were keen to support the event again.”
Malakoff have had a presence in Lerwick continuously since the 1850’s and are currently a large employer in Shetland. Employing around 100 staff - sometimes more. They offer multiple services including but not limited to marine engineering; operating slip ways; carpentry; marine electricians; marine and industrial coatings; jetty maintenance at Sullom Voe and they also have several diving teams that do work in Shetland and Orkney - always focusing on providing high quality services for a reasonable price.
For the Tall Ships Races visit to Lerwick they will be providing health and safety services and environmental management. Malakoff’s HSQE Manager, Jessie Szego will be working closely with the Tall Ships Project team, as she helps with the planning towards the build-up to the event.
Malakoff are committed to providing training within the industry, which is apparent through the company being part of the 5% club, members of which aspire to achieve 5% of their workforce in earn and learn positions. This includes apprentices, sponsored students, and graduates on formalised training schemes. They regularly outperform this target, sometimes having up to 12% of the company’s staff in training. The company have a considerable focus on training young people to work within the industry that are competent at their jobs - whilst also focusing on creating high quality, well paid and secure jobs for people in Shetland. “One of the best ways to guarantee a good workforce is to train them up” Ryan expresses to me.
Malakoff have various apprenticeship schemes including modern apprenticeship schemes, which are completed through a local college, and graduate apprenticeship schemes which provide a four-year honours degree through workplace training. The graduate apprenticeships are delivered in partnership with Robert Gordon University in Aberdeen and can be completed to gain a degree in engineering or accountancy. Finally, they have traditional trade apprenticeships where staff are trained through on-the-job work experience combined with job specific short courses. On top of all these training opportunities, they offer specialised training for specific job roles, such as diving, boat operation or NDT inspection. Ryan explains “It’s great to highlight that there are these types of training opportunities available in Shetland”. Malakoff have an incredible variety of jobs available from: welding/fabrication; engineering; carpentry; blasting/painting; marine electrical; diving; boat operators; NDT inspectors; project management; design; technical; accountancy; naval architecture; laser scanning; and more. “The jobs that we have within the company are more diverse than people think” Ryan explains to me. “If people are living away and looking to come back to Shetland there are lots of different jobs available, not just in our company but within the industry”.
Shetland Tall Ships Ltd are grateful to have an organisation as widely respected and well established as Malakoff to oversee our health and safety services and environmental management - an incredibly important factor to us all. We are also equally delighted as Malakoff share one of the same core values as The Tall Ships Races - to value young people and to focus on their training and personal development. This is a close fit with the ethos of The Tall Ships Races which prioritises the Sail Training experience for 15–25-year-olds and offers this amazing experience to thousands of young people every year.
