Alison Gray, founder and director of Skillfluence and Jillian Couto-Phoenix, head of skills at SAIC, at the ‘Nurturing Talent in Scottish Aquaculture’ event.
Photo: SAIC.
The Sustainable Aquaculture Innovation Centre (SAIC) in Stirling, Scotland is celebrating 10 years of success in supporting aquaculture skills for hundreds of professionals.
Since 2014, SAIC has successfully trained 200 academics to excel in the seafood industry through MSc scholarships, PhD funding, and paid internships, while also enhancing the skills of 294 private sector employees and university researchers via mentoring, leadership courses, and digital training.
To celebrate this milestone, SAIC hosted a networking event in Dunblane this week called ‘Nurturing Talent in Scottish Aquaculture’, which brought together industry experts, professionals at various career stages, and newcomers to the sector.
The networking event highlighted above all the importance of nurturing talent in aquaculture in order to ensure ongoing development and success for the industry.
Jillian Couto-Phoenix, head of skills at SAIC, and Alison Gray, founder and director of Skillfluence, delivered the welcome address, highlighting the importance of skills and knowledge exchange in driving innovation with impact and safeguarding a sustainable future for the sector.
“Over the last ten years, SAIC has existed primarily to connect industry needs with academic expertise via a portfolio of research and development,", Couto-Phoenix said.
"However, to facilitate the sharing and translation of this knowledge into new and improved practices, a connected pipeline of talented individuals is needed to turn these ideas into reality. Therefore, alongside our research and development, SAIC has been nurturing talent by creating cohorts of professionals from across organisations within the aquaculture sector with the purpose of innovating, leading and guiding careers."
The event featured a leadership Q&A, in addition to a panel discussion on personal growth through SAIC’s programs. A key focus of the agenda was the importance of mentoring, particularly through the Women in Scottish Aquaculture network, promoting gender diversity.
SAIC Chief Executive Heather Jones concluded the event by encouraging participants to keep collaborating in order to advance the industry.
Couto-Phoenix highlighted SAIC’s dual focus on bridging industry needs with academic expertise and fostering talent to translate innovative ideas into practical solutions, stressing the importance of consistent funding for skills development to support the sector’s growth ambitions.
“It was energising to hear from professionals from across a range of disciplines, telling us that our programmes have helped them to develop key skills which they have implemented at work and seen positive results," Couto-Phoenix said.
"The keystone is consistent funding for skills and talent programmes – something a sector with big plans to grow and scale needs to bump up the list, given the demonstrable positive effect.”
