Meet the London and South East regional team - Paul Outram

The RYA regional teams consist of volunteers, RYA staff, and contractors who work closely together to provide a network of support to promote boating interests, grow participation opportunities and support club and RYA membership across the region. This month we meet Paul Outram, our Workforce Development Officer.

03 May 24

Our region recently launched its Workforce Development Programme which Paul leads. He writes:

The role

My role as Workforce Development Officer is to support as many of the clubs and centres around our region as possible to run as many instructor courses as they can, to ensure that they have the required number of volunteers or staff members with the required qualifications.

This is a huge task and we have recruited volunteers to act in the role of Workforce Development Coordinators to assist me in the process.

We are looking to offer support in organising training in all of the small boat schemes from dinghy to windsurf to power, from the level of assistant instructor to senior instructor, including as many different endorsements as possible such as keelboat, multi-hull or advanced.

LSE workforce development SI course 2 Queen Mary April 24

Photo - Paul (right) leading a Senior Instructor Course at Queen Mary Sailing Club

My background

I have been involved in the watersports industry full time from the age of 18 since qualifying as a Senior Instructor and taking on the role of Chief Instructor at the Guernsey Sailing Trust in the Channel Islands where I grew up.

Having been born in Chatham in Kent and always worked in the London and South East region I have always known the area and look forward to supporting instructor development across all Recognised Training Centrers, both club and commercial.

As well as stints abroad, I ran a commercial watersports centre in the region for 13 years whilst also doing sailing development officer work for the local clubs and centres. Over the years I have gained experience and qualifications in many different disciplines and am currently a freelance dinghy, windsurf and wing trainer along with involvement in running a yachting business on the south coast as a commercially endorsed YachtMaster Offshore.

My passion for watersports started as a young child and I’ve never wanted to leave the industry, so I’m excited to develop this role supporting club and centre development across the region.

Find out more....

.......about our region’s workforce development programme your RYA regional team and volunteering within our region