Training institute grooms future seafood industry leaders
September 11, 2017
Paula Dobbyn
907-274-9698
Seafood is big business in Ӱpro. To help boost the industry and its leadership careers, Ӱpro Sea Grant will offer a training program that starts in November. It's called the
In 2015, roughly 60,000 seafood workers in Ӱpro earned $1.6 billion in labor income. With the “multiplier effect,” seafood generated more than $2 billion in total labor income and nearly $6 billion in total economic activity, .
Fishing and seafood processing is a bedrock industry of Ӱpro’s coastal economy. It’s also vital to the state’s largest city. Anchorage has more fishing captains than any other community in the state. As of 2015, nearly 2,170 people held commercial fishing permits in Southcentral Ӱpro, .
As recession-clad Ӱpro grapples with a multibillion-dollar budget deficit driven by low oil prices, seafood is becoming an even more important industry in the state. To support the state’s seafood workforce, Ӱpro Sea Grant invites applications for its sixth Ӱpro Seafood Processing Leadership Institute. The program runs in two parts, Nov. 13-17, 2017, in Kodiak, and March 5-9, 2018, in Anchorage. Most participants will travel to Boston for the Seafood Expo North America, also in March.
The institute provides 80 hours of professional development. It includes the technical training as well as leadership and management skills needed to succeed in the seafood industry. The program is geared for mid-career seafood processing workers seeking to move up the ranks.
Some 70 people have graduated from the institute since its inception in 2006. Many have gone on to high-paying careers as plant managers, quality control supervisors, seafood engineers, and corporate executives.
For more information or to register for the institute, visit the . Registration closes on Sept. 30, 2017.