ROYAL Navy sailors based in Plymouth have helped launch a touring display of maritime images which will be marketed by youngsters to help them gain jobs.

The Heartstone Business in a Box project was launched with special guests including crew of Devonport Naval Base warship HMS Sutherland who are supporting the project along with key project partner City College Plymouth and the photographers to support disadvantaged youngsters improve their prospects.

The Royal Navy provided access to the photographers on board HMS Sutherland and the submarine HMS Tireless.

Over the next six months, young people from the college will be taking charge of staging small-scale versions of the exhibition in Plymouth and selling greetings cards drawn from the exhibition which forms their ‘Business in a Box’ project.

Lieutenant Commander Jonathan Boughton, 34, from HMS Sutherland, said: “We are really pleased to be supporting this Heartstone project launch. It is such a good idea to link coastal communities together via young, passionate people. Onboard, HMS Sutherland, we too have passionate young mariners who get involved supporting local communities and charities. The sea is really important to the UK, we are an island after all, and this exhibition is a great way to show that, together with some amazing photography!”

Engineering weapons technician Adam Muncaster, 19, from Carlisle, said: “This was a great worthwhile trip along to the Princes Trust stall.

"Their training offers great opportunities, as does mine, so it is similar in ways as we both learn life skills and are opened to many career opportunities. Very glad I had the chance to attend.”

‘Business in a Box’ is a project created by non-profit organisation Heartstone designed to aid the development of basic employability, communication, presentation and social skills of young people aged 15 and over. It is currently being applied successfully all over the UK and the project in Plymouth will be 1 of 2 the first of a programme covering 20 coastal locations across the UK.

It is centred on a photographic exhibition covering the natural world which is touring across the UK, in this case focussed on the marine environment which is produced with special access for Heartstone from a wide range of global partners stretching from Rodney Fox who assisted with access to cover Great White Sharks in the Southern Ocean to the latest inclusion covering the reintroduction of Sea Eagles in Scotland by the RSPB and dolphins in the Moray Firth related to cutting edge research undertaken by St Andrews University.