Recruiting young people to train with experienced fishers

The Lapland fisheries LAG has financed a fisheries recruitment and training project to rejuvenate the ageing fisheries sector in the area around the Lokka and Porttipahta reservoirs. As a result, 14 young people of both genders have started to fish.

Like many fishing communities, the Lokka-Porttipahta reservoir in northern Finland has an ageing population and problems attracting local young people to the sector. To maintain the local supply chain, recruiting youth to the sector is essential to the survival of the area’s fisheries.

To reverse the ageing trend, this project, led by the Lokka Fishers’ Cooperative, assessed ways to attract young adults to the area and its fishing industry. The project identified three objectives: to ensure the continuity of fishing in the area, improve the professional skills of both new and existing fishers, and develop an innovative recruitment model.

The result was a ‘master and apprentice’ programme in which newly recruited young adults were trained for two and a half years by the area’s senior fishers. This was a flexible programme that provided the apprentices with enough time for other work and study commitments, which was important since the project did not offer an initial income.