“When I joined my first ship, the captain said to me, “Have you heard the old saying, women are bad luck at sea?” That was what I was met with, and it was really challenging,” says HM Coastguard’s Heidi Clevett, who’s determined to celebrate the role of women in maritime.
Heidi has gained a wealth of experience from a professional life spent working in maritime, boosted by her love for the sea and all that comes with it, including sailing, surfing and swimming.
Her career has taken her everywhere: she’s travelled the world and toured every African coastal nation, while battling locust swarms in Sierra Leone and dangerous pirates off the Horn of Africa. She’s even edged through Arctic pack ice while on ‘polar bear watch’.
“There’s been a huge amount of change in maritime over the last 10-15 years, since I was at cadet college. There’s much more awareness of women at sea as well as in the maritime industry,” says Heidi, HM Coastguard’s Head of Technical Infrastructure.
“When I started my cadetship, I think I was one of maybe seven women out of about 130, but things seem much better. Perhaps where you once felt that you could only work towards a career on the bridge, following just one career path, there are many other areas you can go into within the industry now.”
From Control Rooms for autonomous vessels to roles in technology, safety and welfare, women are a growing force and key part of a changing professional maritime environment. And for Heidi, that means all opportunities, not just those for women, should be keenly promoted to all people.
“Being at sea for four months, then home for a month can be quite off-putting, especially for a woman who’s potentially thinking about things like family, and that’s tricky to work out.
“But it might also be that you have a disability or you’re unable to gain your seafarer’s medical certificate and can’t work on a ship at sea. So then, you could work in an operations room, or on a remote vessel… It’s a step in the right direction to see people can work in a role they love and are passionate about.
“It doesn’t have to be eight months at sea and that opens a lot of different opportunities, particularly for women.”
Beginning her career as a Cadet and Officer on cruise liners, Heidi worked her way up to the role of Chief Mate for a ferry operator, before embarking on operational roles at HM Coastguard, including Senior Maritime Operations Officer, Staff Officer in Vessel Traffic Management, and four years as VTS manager of the Dover Strait.
“I think HM Coastguard and the Maritime and Coastguard Agency really commit to equality, and that’s obvious to see. We have a female director of HM Coastguard, for example, and loads of other roles where women work at every level.
“It’s great to see such transferability of skills here and there’s so much that can be brought in to so many roles at HM Coastguard. A deeper understanding of the maritime industry, for example, can inform our work in Policy or legislation.”
Heidi’s keen to point out that women currently entering the industry do so at a time of great change and innovation, where exciting new opportunities in groundbreaking new roles are within reach of others who share her passion – whatever their gender or physical capability.
“Working in a maritime environment is really positive, and being open to all different opportunities is one of the main things. It’s brilliant. It’s inspiring to see that there’s so many different avenues you can take and so much experience that can be useful to your maritime career."
