A life of Gin and Yachts comes to the Old Cattle Market in Helston

Village Works works in mysterious ways.

Settle in and read on and I shall explain all. The place is a rather fine community building on the site of the Old Cattle Market down by the lake – I wonder where they do all that livestock bargaining nowadays? It’s a rather joyous corner of the community these days – boating lake with enormous plastic ride-on swans bobbing about rather impressively, big play area and a pretty state-of-the-art scooter, bike, skateboard park full of teenage Olympics wannabees showing off their tricks and taking outrageous tumbles that would put me in bed for a week. And there’s a library too.

We were here for more serious matters but it wont be long before some of these youngsters will be looking to be more gainfully employed…”no more lessons, no more learning, won’t be long before we’re earning!” as the old TV jingle used to go.

Village Works had come to town again with a full complement of the people and skills and knowledge base that make the idea tick, and of course likely customers who sense a new and effective way of doing things and getting things done; they are typically seeking employment chances and everyone else in the room could offer those chances, was there to point them in the right direction, give advice and basically interview them in some cases – matching requirements with what and who’s available locally.

Right at the heart of all that were the experts from Job Centre Plus in the west of the county – Gail Copp who’s been running things in Helston for years and Sarah Newham who has the wider remit of places slightly further afield. And they were keen to update me on an initiative called KICKSTART.

KICKSTART is central to the apprenticeship agenda really, encouraging companies of whatever size to take on youngsters, train them and hopefully start on a long-term relationship that’s rewarding for both. The employers get a flat fee of £1,500 towards the training and also get funding towards paying their young charges – 25 hours a week at age related minimum wage will get paid by the government and of course the employers are encouraged to increase that 25 up to maybe 30 or 40 hours a week. A proper job and proper training. Everyone wins and hopefully everyone wins longer term than the 6 months that the programme initially runs for. Hence the name Kickstart.

Actually Kickstart has been around for a while but as with all these schemes takes a little while to bed in and start really delivering for people; and soon enough (end of the year) it will be gone so there is an urgency to getting it really optimised, and matching talent with opportunity in whatever line of work needs staff. In these pandemic days we often forget that the government has other stuff to do too… life goes on, life has to go on and businesses need people to run them and make them tick. Especially right now.

So over there at that table was Debbie Lewis of RCHT – the NHS – there’s an organization that needs the best and plenty of them and has never stopped looking to find them even in the darkest days of the last year and a half. And over there was Neil from Parkdean.  Better known locally as Seacres and Lizard Point, running a very different business but one with equally huge staffing demands in the summer season: a big holiday camp experience down Mullion way, with as wide a variety of employment opportunities as you can get – catering, cleaning, maintenance, accounts, gardening, barwork…you name it. Over the years they have developed a very good relationship with Helston Job Centre Plus and work seamlessly with them employing the people that keep Cornwall’s visitor economy ticking. Big players locally.

But not every employer is huge and employing across the board. Cornwall has endless new entrepreneurial companies working in all sorts of fields – looking to grow bigger but also happy in their specialist niche. So, sitting alongside each other down the end of the hall were representatives (indeed owners) of Henderson Fletcher Yachts – Samuel Foster – and Rubina Tyler-Street from Soul Spirits. (You see I get to the point eventually!)

The former build…er…yachts in sunny Gweek, while the latter make gin and rum around a kitchen table – well they’ve got bigger than that now but that’s how they started, a husband and wife team. The yacht that’s currently being built will probably end up being sold for a pretty penny to a wealthy American – it will cost close to a half a million to build; whilst the gins and rums are currently flying off the shelves in this once rather abstemious Methodist county of ours. Cornish gin quite the thing these days… I’m told.

Technically Rubina was representing Soul Spirits but the better known beautifully packaged brand name is CURIO craft gins – Wild Coast probably the best known, not to forget the newly launched rum either. All distilled not far away – originally near Mullion, now in downtown Porthleven too where they are looking for 3 new essential staff – a marketing assistant manager, distillery assistant and probably a general manager.

This award-winning company is sure to grow and they’re already exploring what else they can do with 7 or 8 years of experience under their belts now, and wonderful local ingredients. Gin may just be the start of a portfolio of flavoured drinks! Rubina spoke enthusiastically, and with good reason, about their new Cornish Hard Seltzer – sparking 4.5 abv in a can, based on pear and elderflower. Sadly no free samples. Seltzers have been around for decades but are suddenly coming to the fore again, especially with a younger audience and theirs ticks all those boxes you have to tick these days – zero sugar, low cal, gluten free, vegan. If you’re starting from scratch, why wouldn’t you build in all that good stuff, or rather leave out the bad stuff, to make the perfect drink.

So there were big employers sat at some of these tables, but also bright and successful newcomers looking for new staff to join their growing teams. And I bet they’d enjoy every minute with this exciting brand.

And there was another one – looking for woodworking craftsmen to build boats in Gweek – Henderson Fletcher on the look out for dedicated and talented marine grade carpenters to join their highly skilled team. Oh, we’ve all heard of the excellent Pendennis employing 350 over in Falmouth, but this outfit is smaller and very hands-on. They have carved an enviable niche in hand crafted wooden boats and are always on the look out for talent. Sometimes they are building to order, other times building something special that they know will have a ready market once it’s finished. I found that rather risky but Samuel was very relaxed, explaining that there would be some discerning purchasers when the last coat of varnish has gone on in a few weeks time. Possibly, indeed probably, in America where they have a hankering for British…Cornish… craft skills. Ship them over – yes, a boat on a ship – and there is a ready market. And then start on the next one.

Neil is always on the look out, and has built up relationships with other like minded craftspeople such as Falmouth Marine School who can train but not employ, and there he is with a ready made opportunity for a young master craftsman or woman of the future with a strong work ethic and innate attention to detail.

Making yachts or making gin – I told you you’d be surprised what you can find in an old Cornish cattle market.

Dave Meneer