Team Spotlight – Will Girard

This week we are shining the light on another of our team members Will Girard who joined us as an apprentice back in 2016. We asked Will to go under the spotlight and fill us in on his role, journey and what he sees as the greatest challenges in his work:

Describe your role in 5 words:

Product Management, auditor and sales

What do you like best about your job?

Being able to work with maps. Having studied A level Geography (which is more than colouring in) I have been able to take that interest and use at OceanWise.
Also, everyday at OceanWise is different – I have gained valuable experience in various projects and roles as I have progressed since starting in 2016.

What is your greatest challenge at work?

Change and standardisation. One thing I have learnt about the maritime industry is the slow pace of moving over to more modern or even just different and more efficient techniques. This has been evident especially in the use of standard paper/raster charts instead of vector data which has so much more functionality e.g. query your data rather than just see an image (which a raster chart basically is).
Marine mapping is not just for navigational use. Our clients range from Governments to Oil and Gas companies who need data of particular areas for project planning. This could be for example to know where its safe to lay down pipelines to an Oil Rig in the North Sea. If there was standardisation of how Hydrographic Offices share data then this valuable data could be available easily to all.

Tell us how you came to work at OceanWise / Tell us about your Career path so far?

I joined OceanWise in 2016 as a level 3 business administration apprentice. My apprenticeship taught me the ropes of admin sides of businesses and especially enabled me to use the skills on audits to apply within OceanWise. Having successfully completed my apprenticeship in March 2018 I took on further responsibilities as my career gained momentum. I took on roles as deputy product manager, handling sales enquiries and more recently become the Environment representative having completed the NEBOSH certification.