A company in Falmouth is taking on 18 new staff members as it prepares for the biggest expansion in its history.

Cornwall Marine Network, based in Bickland Water Road, is a company set up to support marine-based businesses in the county by helping with marketing, training and finding best ways of working.

Now, after winning record volume of new business, it is able to expand the range of services it offers to its members - and will be employing 18 more people to help do it.

CEO Paul Wickes said: "This is the biggest expansion of our range of services to marine businesses in our history.

"It is at a time when many local employers will need more support than ever before, as we approach the deadline of the furlough scheme in October and the need to support businesses faced with implementing redundancies, alongside a local leisure sector that will struggle to survive during the forthcoming winter due to a major current loss of earnings.

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"In economic terms, many are in the middle of three winters.

"Our expert team will grow from 30 to 48, with the probability of even more jobs being added later this year."

The marine network's extended range of services now includes helping its members identify what new skills they need as a company, as they look to reorganise in response to the impact of the pandemic.

The team will be able to find and deliver any training the businesses need for more than 3,000 local employees.

Also, for the first time, the network team will be able to support self-employed marine sector workers to grow their business.

They will give back up to companies whose workers will be threatened with redundancy, including helping anyone facing unemployment to boost their employability.

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Thanks to new funding, the network can help improve the skills of seasonal - and often low paid - employees to boost their prospects of advancing in companies and finding all-year-round employment.

New training courses have been developed and include offering advice to employers on how to overcome the fears some workers may have when faced with a return to work.

The network's subsidiary companies, the Cornwall Marine Academy and the Cornwall Apprenticeship Agency, will also extend the help they offer to promote marine careers to young people, provide pre-apprenticeship training and reduce the risk and cost for small businesses to employ apprentices.

Cornwall Marine Network is a private, not-for-profit company, owned by more than 350 local businesses in Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly.

Since 2005 the network has supported local businesses to create more than 3,000 new jobs and placed an additional 800 unemployed people into work.