Greater business and educational links between Estonia and Cornwall have been on the agenda, following a three-day visit to Falmouth.
The seven delegates from Kuressaare Regional Training Centre toured Falmouth Marine School, met with business leaders and were special guests of the Mayor of Falmouth.
Mark Muru, owner and manager of Estonian boat company, Alunaut, said: “It has been a very good visit, we have enjoyed every aspect and we have learnt a lot about education here.
The boatyards in Cornwall and the way in which people work is very different, as for the nature, it is just superb. We have been working on changing our education system and we have taken lots of ideas from this visit; some things have confirmed that we are on the right path.”
Kuressaare is a vocational school with 1,000 students and works closely with local companies and the Association of Estonian Boatyards.
During the visit, the group also visited the National Maritime Museum and Cockwells boatyard in south east Cornwall.
Falmouth Marine School’s Dave Johnson, who helped to coordinate the visit, said: “This has been really interesting; it has offered us an opportunity to engage with our visitors, both from an education perspective and of course some of the business owners from Estonia, who are especially, keen to see the skills on offer by our students.”
