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As a young boy, John Smith spent many an hour down on the Fish Quay at North Shields.

"My granddad used to bring me down all the time because he had a little boat and we used to go fishing and that," he says, "so we were always on the quay, or on the boat, or something like that."

But when it came to eating what they pulled out of the water John was a little less adventurous.

Training takes place in small groups

For a long time the only fish he ate came battered and wrapped in paper from the chip shop.

Today, however, things couldn't be more different.

John is the senior trainer in fish filleting at the North Shields Seafood Training Centre.

Watching him at work with some of his students, you can see that filleting fish is a real craft.

Extremely deft movements (with a very sharp knife) are needed to remove all the bones from the fish while preserving as much of the meat as possible.

And it's surprising to see how much welly it takes to cut something like cod into steaks.

Skippers ticket

John, who used to be a shop fitter, first arrived at the centre as a trainee, when he was looking for work that would keep him closer to home.

Initially his plan was to get a fork-lift licence but the managing director, Dennis Osborne, recognised his potential with the filleting knife and four years later John is still there.

The centre is in North Shields

Fish filleting is just one of many skills taught at the Seafood Training Centre.

The centre, which began life as the North Shields Fish Filleting School in 2001, moved to new purpose-built premises just up from the Fish Quay in January 2008, and these were officially opened in April.

It now offers 33 different courses, from first aid and food safety to manual handling, fork-lift driving and seafood preparation.

They also run a popular "inshore skippers ticket" course that covers various aspects including navigation, engineering, stability, sea survival and fire fighting over 15-20 days.Μύ

Dennis says it has been a gradual evolution to fit the changing needs of the industry.

"The industry's changing so much. People say the fishing industry's dead but it isn't dead, it's going through massive change from quantity to quality.

"So we are here hopefully to fill that gap and give the industry what it needs to get into the quality side, but also educate the schoolchildren and the general public."

There is a kitchen with 3 work stations

Fun courses

The North Shields Seafood Training Centre is one of only three such centres in the whole country.

It serves the needs of the fishing industry from Hartlepool right up to Berwick and across to Kielder in the west.

Those who have passed through its doors so far include skippers and crew, fish fryers, and staff from local restaurants and supermarkets.

They also train people hoping to get back into work through the New Deal.

But Dennis is keen to stress they run short, "fun" courses for the general public too - whether it's anglers wanting to learn how to prepare the fish they catch or foodies who want to try cooking something different.

"We're here and we want people to use us," he says, "and that's the general public as well.

"They're so much part of the industry. They are part of the fishing community. If they don't eat fish there won't be a fishing industry."

North Shields quay

Though the centre serves the whole region its relationship with North Shields is very important.

The market at North Shields fish quay

All the fish they use comes from North Shields and some of it goes back to the quay to be sold after it has been filleted. They get through one to two boxes of fish every day (each weighing 56kg).

"North Shields depends on the fish quay and fishing for its tourism," says Dennis.

"That's why people come down here... They can see every aspect of the fishing industry down here in North Shields.

"So my view is we've got to expand on that. We need people to come to the North East and we need people in the North East to appreciate what they've got."

Find out more about the Seafood Training Centre on their website: