Falmouth Marine School students who completed the first year of a course will be allowed to finish the second year before it is cancelled.

Last week the Packet reported that the Watersports Instructor course would be cut due to under-funding and lack of applicants.

After the report, the school met with parents and students and informed them that those currently on the course would be allowed to finish as planned.

Student Harry Fernihough, 17, said that he was pleased to learn that he would be able to finish the course and become a qualified instructor.

He plans to travel the world after finishing the course to teach people how to sail and windsurf.

Harry said: “I have been doing watersports my whole life so it’s something I wanted to do.”

A spokesperson from Falmouth Marine School said: “We are grateful to our students and parents for raising their concerns about the proposed closure of our Watersports Instructor course.

“Following a recent meeting with parents and students, we have agreed that our existing L2 students [first year] will be able to progress to L3 to complete their Watersports training at Falmouth Marine School during 2019/20.

“The current course is not affordable within the funding formula, so we are reviewing whether we can provide this specialist training in the future.”

When the students were notified that the course would be cancelled, there were fears that they would have to start a new course and eventually study for an extra year to reach the same level of qualification (level three).

Speaking about when he found out the course would be cancelled, Harry said: “I didn’t know where I could go from there because I didn’t want to start a new college course.”

Harry’s dad Mark said that he is now trying to bring local businesses together to help fund the course so that it does not get axed.

Mark said: “So many people contacted us that we’re hoping to put interested people together with the college and put something together.”