Disadvantaged Merseyside youngsters are learning life skills on ships that have sailed the seven seas.
The Blue Clipper tall ship, which has recently been berthed at the Albert Dock, is one of the vessels on which Merseyside Adventure Sailing Trust (MAST) has made thousands of young people realise their full potential through teamwork.
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MAST is a charity which is dedicated to guiding, coaching and supporting educational and practical achievements for young people, and this week its chairman Jim Graves BEM, held an open day on the Blue Clipper in a bid to get North West and London businesses to pledge their support for the next crop of Mersey youngsters.
Jim Graves, who himself has circumnavigated the world's oceans three times, said: "We are all volunteers at MAST and we help people get into the maritime industry. Over the last 13 years, we have been working with young people from the age of 14 upwards in creating the environment to help them develop their life pathways.
"We do this by putting them on a tall ship and we put in place well-being for them. They sail on a tall ship with the guidance of a professional crew. The youngsters have no qualifications and they acquire life skills, such communication and team building. They can later apply these skills back at work. We mix them with businesses and we will introduce them to pathways.
"Businesses sponsor week-long individuals and they can get a qualification at the end of it. They have a mentor too. They realise the value of themselves when they are on the ship.
"The youngsters come out different because they have been challenged. What we try to do is to bring out their full potential. They plot the courses, they navigate the ship, so they do maths and engineering and they do team-building too. They do cooking and they work at different times throughout the day, morning and night. They recognise themselves.
"We are encouraging this with businesses. As for the individual, they have to prove that they want to come, so they have to raise some money. By them making a contribution they are buying into the scheme.
"We get them to fill out a personal log book and they log everything into that. At the end of their time of the ship, they take their personal log away and they can show it to employers and that has helped them get jobs."
MAST is supported by private, public and governmental organisations, including Liverpool City Council, the National Lottery and Cammell Laird.
And MAST's efforts has been recognised through the Mersey Maritime Positive Impact Award 2018, the Lord Lieutenant's Award 2018 and Queen's Award for Voluntry Services 2019.
Some alumni have gone onto achieve great things in life.
Jim added: "We've had many youngsters from the inner city who have gone onto do amazing things because through MAST they were able to see how valuable they are.
"One of our alumni is the chief engineer on the Sir David Attenborough, the polar research ship. We have a lad who has a masters ticket now and travels for the Dutch. We have lots of kids and they have their own stories.
"We know a lot of kids who stay on the ships are underprivileged. Through what we do, people realise who they are and what their value is. We have an obligation in helping them to discover themselves so they can become our leaders of tomorrow - that's why we do this."
To find out more about MAST, call 07801680514 or email mastjwg@yahoo.co.uk
