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‘Sea blindness‘ means lack of shipping vision
Southampton Solent University is funding research to examine ‘sea blindness‘, the lack of public awareness surrounding the shipping industry, and to plug a perceived skills gap. The research aims to establish the extent of sea blindness and generate valuable baseline data that can be used to inform the development of a range of tools to raise public awareness about the industry.
“As an island nation we are absolutely dependant on shipping,“ said Dr Kate Pike, senior research fellow with the University‘s maritime technology faculty (MARtec). “It is the life blood of the UK‘s economy and responsible for 95% of all imports and exports, yet many people know less about the industry today than they did 50 years ago.“
The growing demand of a global population for goods has seen levels of international trade dramatically increase over the past four decades. In the UK within the maritime sector, this translates to a contribution of around £31 billion for the UK‘s GDP.
In Southampton, home to the country‘s number one cruise port and the third-largest
container port, this contributes £714 million to the local economy. The port supports approximately 15,000 local jobs and 30,000 jobs within the Southampton cruise sector. The maritime industry is also responsible for one in every 50 jobs in the UK.
“Despite its importance, there is virtually nothing about the shipping industry included on the national schools‘ curriculum, a significant omission considering it offers very real employment opportunities,“ added Pike.
“Many people are surprised to learn that only 2% of the world‘s seafarers are female and, of these women, 94% work either on cruise ships or passenger ferries. Part of our research will examine whether this is a conscious career choice or if young people still at school or at Sixth Form College are simply unaware of the variety of careers available to them at sea.“
Southampton Solent University is responding to the skills gap within the industry through an international reputation gained from its maritime courses, training and graduates.
Regeneration and development to boost house price rise
Southampton will see considerable regeneration and development over the next few years, pushing up house prices, according to property consultancy JLL.
Speaking at a Southampton Property Association event, Neil Chegwidden, JLL‘s residential research director, said that regeneration and development at WestQuay Watermark, Centenary Quay, Cultural Quarter, Admiral Quay and Platform for Prosperity, to name a few, should make Southampton a more attractive and appealing place to live, work and shop, which will help drive house prices notably higher.
Although the General Election will take centre stage during the first few months of the year, he said that by far the most important factor for the housing market will be a much stronger economy and jobs market over the next couple of years in particular.
Ben Ponting, senior planner at JLL, said take-up of permitted development rights for office- to-residential conversions has expedited the delivery of new housing in the Southampton region. “There are units currently on the market that would have still been going through the planning process under the previous scheme.“
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