Thirty years of Lawhill Maritime Centre tells a story built through clear waypoints — each one marking how opportunity was widened and futures reshaped.
The timeline from 1995 to 2025 reads like a logbook of steady progress:
All culminating in 2025 — 30 years of impact.
A significant chapter began in 2014, when Debbie Owen stepped into leadership.
Her decade at the helm has shaped Lawhill’s direction just as surely as any facility, curriculum, or partnership. Debbie’s steady hand, high standards and deep belief in young people have become an essential part of the programme’s identity. Her SAIMI Imbokodo Awards reflect the influence she has had — on students, on staff, and on maritime education as a whole
My visit last year made this history tangible.
The students steered the conversation with clarity and purpose. Their graduation felt like a launch — each of them ready to read their own charts and navigate their own seas.
Reflections from their voices still resonate:
• Curiosity widens possibility
• Dreams guide direction
• Initiative shifts momentum
• Collaboration strengthens the voyage
• Growth lives beyond comfort
• Changing course is part of navigation
• Every path is unique
Congratulations to the entire Lawhill community on three decades of shaping futures. And deep appreciation to Debbie Owen, whose leadership has guided Lawhill into one of its strongest, most purposeful eras.
I am looking forward to visiting Lawhill Maritime Centre again 💙
