AWARDS/LETTERS

RMT helpline 0800 376 3706 :: november/december 2015 :: RMTnews 28 A team of four Royal Fleet Auxiliary chefs plus one Royal Marine took on the might of the Royal Air Force and Army teams to win joint gold medal in the Blue Ribbon Open Team Buffet competition. The RMT members from the RFA are part of the naval services Culinary Arts Team and chefs from all three services showed off their skills and competed for medals ranging from a certificate of merit, bronze silver and Gold. Gold is the Holy Grail as not many are awarded. The themed menus were devised by RFA staff including leading hand Shane Rixon with assistant chef Mark Reed, leading hand Tom o’ Conner and CPO Matt Rowberry. They were joined by and Royal Martine Sargent Tristan Merrick. The boys got together a week before the event to practice dishes and refine their menu and then worked through the night and transported their culinary fare to RAF Shrivenham, outside Swindon all the way from HMS Raleigh in Cornwall. They arrived at 0530 and had to set up the table for 0800 and then wait and try to relax until the international judges finished marking. At the awards ceremony the lads found out that they had been awarded a Gold Medal narrowly missing out to the RAF by two points for the best in class. The team can be very proud of their achievements considering the size of the RFA compared to the other services and winning one of only two gold medals awarded to the naval services team. So a big well done to Shane, Mark, Tom and Matt from the RFA and of course to their colleague in the Royal Marines, Tristan. R MT Learning went out on the high seas recently as learning officer Paul Shaw visits Dover to onnect with Learners from the port, DFDS and P&O Ferries. He invited some providers to join him from East Kent College and the Marine Society and Sea Cadets. A great deal of interest has been shown in opportunities being organised at Dover Maritime House such as BSL and IT courses. Also they have been promoting Maths at Sea and online portal for improving maths standards and the Slater Foundation who provide financial support to seafarers who want to study courses of a maritime nature. RMT learning officer Karen Skelly was also on board to speak to members about becoming Union Learning reps on their ships. She met up with ULRs Mark Stannard and Alicja Szostak to catch up with their work and offer support and advice. Learning officer Petrit Mihaj spoke to learners and ULRs about the potential for Learning Agreements and how they can support and sustain ULR activity within a workplace. Although members get down time on board manyn find it very hard to study on-line as the crew wi-fi has a very weak signal and they struggle to even use it for browsing. Discussions were held with ULRs about the potential for a campaign to get companies to upgrade their wi-fi if they are serious about their staff learning and improving their skills. GOLD FOR RFA CHEFS LEARNING AT SEA Karen Skelly showing ULR Alicja szostak the new e-pinkie function on her smart phone