Viking Crew is now also in Portsmouth

Viking Crew is now also in Portsmouth

Viking Crew now has a representative in The Maritime Skills Academy Portsmouth Training centre and Chiltern Maritime office

Lucy Masters is now representing Viking Crew from our Portsmouth office and this is her story. 

I started my career in Maritime purely by chance, taking on a temporary role for a cadet training company nearly 20 years ago! (Please don’t try and work out my age 😊) I spent 14 years working for this organisation which managed the recruitment and training programmes for trainee officers in the Merchant Navy and this is largely my background I was a training officer and recruiter for the various programmes and it enabled me to utilise my people and admin skills with something new happening every day, it was a job I thoroughly enjoyed! 

Life moved on and after taking a short break from the industry I soon found myself back in a cadet training/HR role for a local ferry company in Dover (because once you get the “bug” for Maritime it never really goes away) which was closer to home and subsequently become a part-time role after the arrival of my Children.    

I started working for Viking Maritime in 2018 as a part-time recruitment consultant this time looking for qualified seafarer’s for the Cruise Industry and I have enjoyed every minute of it!  It’s very surreal when I come across some of my “old cadets” that now have established careers and are, in some cases Captain’s and Chief Engineers these days – it certainly is a small world!     

Life has moved on again and as a family we took the opportunity to relocate from Kent to Southampton when my husband was offered a new position, we are a sailing family and what better place to keep your boat than in the Solent!  It was the right move for us and to have it all happening whilst in the midst of a pandemic was certainly a challenge, but we have survived!  

I thought that I would find myself having to look for work after the move and although hopeful that I could remain in the Industry wasn’t sure what this would look like especially with the devastating effects to the Cruise Industry, But! after throwing some ideas around with the team at Dover we came up with another solution – I could work out of The Maritime Skills Academy Portsmouth Training centre and Chiltern Maritime office and bring Viking Crew to the Solent with me!  

These are challenging times for us all at the moment but in spite of this I am very excited to be part of the future of Viking Maritime Group, bringing a greater level of cohesion between the various parts of the business enabling me to meet with newly qualified officers coming through the system and seafarers attending courses to see where we can help find that next opportunity! 

“When we are able to meet face to face again my door is open and I look forward to meeting more of you soon!  COVID may be preventing us from meeting people face to face in the way that we were all used to but with the technology available to us we are still open for business and I am happy to say a virtual hello anytime” – Lucy Masters, Cruise Placement Consultant – Deck, Technical & Hotel 

Director of Viking Crew, Paul Rutterford commented ‘When Lucy told me that she was relocating with her husband and children to Hampshire it was obvious to me that in order to keep Lucy’s skill and experience within the Viking family Lucy would be able to be based out of our Maritime Skills Academy Portsmouth Training centre and Chiltern Maritime office.   

As a truly Global company we continue to grow, and with Lucy representing Viking Crew from Portsmouth, it means that we can continue to enhance our services of Placing People First from all our office locations.’ 

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