The Seafood Training Academy – Open for business!

    The Seafood Training Academy was established in 2007 as a partnership between leading seafood schools in the UK and industry body Seafish as part of the National Skills Academy for Food and Drink Manufacturing. In 2008 the Young’s Seafood and Grimsby Institute of Further and Higher Education Training Academy merged with the Seafood Training Academy and helped to propel it towards Limited Company status.


    The Seafood Training Academy offers a wide range of services and course programmes. The benefits of training and development are promoted through the use of case studies and through this website, which already contains a substantial amount of free content for students, employers and decision makers in the industry.

    Seafood Training Academy Partnership includes Seafood Training Schools which offer comprehensive training facilities for students.

    The Sea Fish Industry Authority (Seafish) works closely with the seafood industry to identify training needs at management and operative level. They have developed a broad range of training materials and courses to meet many of the needs of people working in the onshore sectors of the industry. These range from training videos to nationally recognised qualifications. As the authority on seafood, Seafish has a UK wide remit for the seafood industry.

    Grimsby Institute is the home of the UK seafood processing sector support programmes with extensive training and support facilities housed at the Humber Seafood Institute.

    The National Federation of Fish Friers has a substantial suite of training rooms at their training school in Leeds, which includes modern, high efficiency frying ranges, food preparation rooms and classroom facilities.

    Both Billingsgate and North Shields Seafood Schools also have extensive training, preparation and working areas providing an excellent learning environment for students.

    Chairman of the Seafood Training Academy, Mike Dillon said:

    “The Seafood Training Academyhas been established to effectively promote and deliver high quality training for the onshore sectors of the UK seafood industry. This collaboration provides a unique opportunity to work nationally throughout the UK to deliver skills and programmes in a joint manner.”

    Paul Williams, of Seafish and Deputy Chairman of the Seafood Training Academy, said:

    “Seafish welcomes this further development of the Academy and is pleased to support the improvement of its training services for the seafood industry.”

    Seafood Training Academy Partners - Who we are and what we do?

    North West Seafood Training Centre works closely with Blackpool and the Fylde College. The NW Centre is active in fish filleting training and working with schools to promote seafood and healthy eating.

    Billingsgate Seafood Training School is based at the world famous London Fish Market. The School is very active in providing a range of courses for young people, independent and multiple retailers, seafood industry professionals and the general public.

    The Grimsby Institute offers a wide range of manufacturing and technical programmes to industry utilising purpose built factory and research facilities ranging from bespoke programmes to NVQs, Degrees and Masters qualifications.

    Seafood Training Centre North East offers a range of training courses for industry, schools, and the general public, and the unemployed seeking employment in the seafood industry. The Centre is based near the fish market in North Shields in new purpose built facilities.

    The National Federation of Fish Friers’ Fish Frying School, is based at their Leeds HQ and offers a range of courses for fish friers, both those already in business and those looking to start up new businesses.

    The Sea Fish Industry Authority is based at the Humber Seafood Institute in Grimsby and offers a range of seafood specific training programmes for delivery throughout the UK as well as providing funding supportfor training to both individuals and seafood businesses.