Today Centre for Social Informatics PhD student Katherine Stephen starts a 3-month paid internship with Marine Scotland. The internship has been organised through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Scottish Science (SGSSS) internship programme, and is funded by the Scottish Government.

Coastal rower Katherine Stephen

Marine Scotland is the Scottish Government directorate responsible for the integrated management of Scotland’s seas. During her internship within the Marine Analytical Unit, Katherine’s main role will be to investigate the factors that affect career progression in the Scottish fishing industry. This work relates to one of the objectives of Marine Scotland’s Future Fisheries Management Strategy and Blue Economy Action Plan: to support the resilience of the fishing industry through strengthened employment opportunities and career progression within it. Meeting this objective is important to the sustainability of fishing communities and the resilience of coastal communities, particularly in the context of the COVID19 pandemic and Brexit.

The internship project fits well with Katherine’s research, prior career, and personal interests. Her doctoral study is focused on skills development in the workplace, and Katherine is a qualified careers advisor. Katherine has worked on canal boats, and as a navigation officer in the Merchant Navy. In addition, Katherine feels very connected to the sea through her passion for coastal rowing, and family connections to the traditional fishing port of Fraserburgh in the north east of Scotland.

Katherine is the third of our PhD students to undertake an internship through the Scottish Graduate School of Social Scottish Science (SGSSS) internship programme. In 2017 John Mowbray (graduated 2018) completed a project for Skills Development Scotland (SDS) on the use of social media by young customers of SDS services. The following year, Lyndsey Middleton (graduated 2020) worked for the eHealth division of the Scottish Government at St Andrews House, Edinburgh within the Policy and Strategy Workstream on a project about mobile working technologies.