Four Danish maritime industry organisations have called on lawmakers to include a maritime profile in the planned EPX vocational and professional youth education programme as part of efforts to boost recruitment to fishing, shipping, ports and shipyards.
Danmarks Fiskeriforening, Danske Rederier, Danske Maritime and Danske Havne have proposed a profile combining classroom learning with practical experience, including company visits, placements and projects based on workplace challenges.
Subjects could link mathematics and science with navigation, energy and technology, and cover propulsion, fuel use, safety at sea, logistics and international trade.
The organisations want schools to develop profiles with local businesses, with fishing communities focusing on fishing and fish processing and others on shipping, offshore or port technology. They have asked that the national EPX framework allow institutions across Denmark, not only those in port towns, to establish such profiles.
The idea grew out of discussions between Danmarks Fiskeriforening and North Sea College in Thyborøn, which trains around 20 commercial fishers each year.
"We have a strong interest in increasing interest in fishing and recruiting people to the profession," Danmarks Fiskeriforening director Kenn Skau-Fischer told Fiskeri Tidende.
The Danish Government and two opposition parties agreed to establish EPX on February 18, 2025, with the first students expected to begin in August 2030. Further clarity on where and how the programme can be offered is expected during 2027.
A 2022 Aalborg University study identified difficulty in recruiting young people to fisher training, mirroring wider concerns over attracting talent to the maritime industry. Danske Havne said the wider Blue Denmark maritime sector employs nearly 100,000 people.