Supporting seafood skills from processing to plate
Training remains an absolutely crucial part of the development of everyone working in the seafood sectors. In 2025, we were delighted to issue our 3,000th training award since 2020.
What was the industry challenge?
Seafood businesses need skilled employees to handle, prepare, process and sell seafood. But businesses across the onshore seafood supply chain face ongoing challenges around recruitment and retention, compliance and access to practical skills training. Processors, wholesalers, fishmongers, fish friers, chefs and retailers all need staff who understand seafood-specific requirements, from food hygiene and health and safety to fish quality, fish filleting, fish frying and product integrity.
How did Seafish and its partners respond?
We develop and support a wide range of onshore training courses for people working with seafood in the UK. This includes areas such as food hygiene, HACCP, health and safety, bivalve shellfish safety, food allergens and food authenticity, as well as skills-based training in fishmongering, fish frying, fish quality assessment and fish smoking.
Courses are delivered through Seafish-approved training providers, in person and remotely. The content is developed with the seafood industry in mind, meaning even generic compliance subjects include seafood-specific examples that make the training more relevant to businesses.
What was the impact?
Our onshore training helps seafood businesses develop staff, meet legal responsibilities, maintain standards and protect their reputations. Compliance training programmes are accredited by the Royal Environmental Health Institute of Scotland (REHIS), with successful candidates receiving nationally recognised qualifications jointly awarded by REHIS and Seafish.
Our onshore training programmes reached an important milestone in 2025, when we issued our 3,000th onshore training award since 2020. Following the move to a predominantly remote delivery model in 2020, learners from Peterhead to Grimsby and Kilkeel to Anglesey have accessed Seafish training along with learners from countries including Australia, Canada, Uruguay and the United States.
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