Boost for Iceland\’s aquaculture education

One of Iceland’s leading universities has received a major grant to help develop vocational training in aquaculture.
The ISK 46 million award to the University of Akureyri in the north of the country has come from Erasmus +, a European Union programme set up to support education and training for young people.
Although Iceland is not a member of the EU, it is involved in a Centre of Vocational Excellence joint research project which includes other EU countries such as Sweden and Finland.
The University of Akureyri now has its own aquaculture and fishery training facility and its speciality within the project is the design of study material used for fish farming training.
The University said in a statement there had been a large increase in aquaculture activity in Iceland which meant that demand for greater education in fish farming technology had increased accordingly. Iceland’s salmon output this year is widely expected to be around 31,500 tonnes.
It went on: “The main role of the University of Akureyri with this will be to design new tools for disseminating teaching material and also to disseminate knowledge about innovation in the aquaculture.
“The University of Akureyri will also be involved in the design of study material in aquaculture at university level and will organise a conference on studies in aquaculture bringing together educational organisations and companies active in the fish farming industry.”
The project also involves Norway, home to the world’s largest fish farming sector, which like Iceland is not a member of the EU, but retains close links with Brussels.