Maritime SuperSkills education

The Liverpool City-Region is a maritime region with a rich history and an even more exciting future.

Fast facts

• We are a port city, popular as an international cruise visitor destination, and proud to be home to one of the UK’s largest and busiest ports.
• The Port of Liverpool and the Manchester Ship Canal together form a 44-mile inland waterway, a ‘green’ alternative to moving freight by road. It is the UK’s most impressive shipping network and logistics hub, offering ship-to-door access to 35m people.
• The Liverpool2 deepwater container terminal opened in 2016. Now it is equipped to welcome 95% of the world’s shipping fleet, up from 5% previously.
• The Port of Liverpool handles a third of the UK’s container trade with the USA, making Liverpool the No.1 gateway for UK/US business.
• The Cammell Laird shipyard in Birkenhead beat international competition to win the contract to build a new £150m state-of-the-art polar research vessel for the UK. The RRS Sir David Attenborough and its Remotely Operated subsea Vehicle (Boaty McBoatface) will launch in 2019.
• The UK has the potential to supply its own electricity needs three times over from offshore wind. Five windfarms operate from Liverpool Bay with local companies supplying seabed mapping, fabrication, diving, marine and legal services.
• Liverpool Bay hosts the world’s biggest and most powerful wind turbines. Each turbine is twice as tall as the Liver Buildings, and each blade is longer than nine double-decker buses.
• Future regional projects include generating green energy from a Mersey tidal barrage, and large-scale modular construction of everything from aircraft carriers to nuclear power stations to Heathrow’s third runway.

The maritime sector on Merseyside is one of the largest and broadest in the UK. There are more jobs based in Liverpool city centre with major container lines than anywhere else outside of London. Liverpool is also home to some of the most successful maritime professional services companies in the UK, including marine law, marine insurance, ship and cargo surveying and ship management. It offers a wealth of career options for our children and young people. Find out how: