Royal award for Fleetwood college boss

Now the college boss has been awarded the Merchant Navy Medal for Meritorious Service after a lifetime of dedication to promoting maritime education.

Neil first arrived at the Fleetwood campus in 1989, studying at an evening class, before moving onto a cadetship, which he said was "despite the careers teacher trying to convince me to be a chartered accountant, because they hadn't heard about careers in the Merchant Navy."

After learning his trade on land and at sea, Neil moved on to work on large bulk carriers, later becoming a captain in the ferry sector.

He returned to Fleetwood at various points during his career to continue his nautical education, gaining the highest professional qualification, - Master Mariners Certificate of Competency - in 2003, and is now a chartered Master Mariner.

The award marks a double celebration for Neil, who started lecturing 20 years ago and has been Head of Campus, part of Blackpool and The Fylde College, for the last seven years.

He said: "Fleetwood Nautical Campus has a fantastic reputation worldwide which has been created by the quality of the team that work within it, it's not the campus buildings, the simulators, or the pool, it’s the people teaching here making it special."

"My ambition is to ensure that we continue building the team to take Fleetwood forward into the future for the next generation of students.”"

The award received the Royal Warrant in 2015 and Neil will be presented with his at a royal gathering in the summer of 2021.

In the meantime he is planning to expand the course portfolio of the world-famous nautical college with dedicated programmes focused on the campus' state-of-the-art bridge and engine room simulators, Fleetwood Nautical Campus' first BSc (Hons) degree, and expanding offshore training packages to support the renewable energy sector.