Maersk Training’s unique training portfolio will help the North Sea offshore wind industry improve safety and operational performance
Since 1978, Maersk Training has been training personnel in the offshore oil & gas and maritime industries. For the last five years we have been using our vast experience in offshore training, to develop unique and competitive training facilities for the growing offshore wind industry across the North Sea region.
Maersk Training is one of the biggest providers of wind related training in the region. Our UK centres in Aberdeen and Newcastle, alongside Esbjerg in Denmark, are amongst the most advanced and realistic training environments, with the capacity and flexibility to meet the future demands of the North Sea offshore wind industry.
New operational challenges for the wind industry
‘The offshore wind industry will face a wide range of new challenges over the next decade. Operations will become more complex and to succeed the industry will require more specialised and competently trained personnel’, says John Abate, Managing Director of Maersk Training in the UK.
‘When moving further offshore the owners, turbine manufacturers and contractors will have to consider providing a more advanced level of safety and survival related training. Due to the increasing distance from shore to turbine and the prolonged time for medical professionals to reach a casualty in an emergency, a greater emphasis is currently being placed on arrangements for emergency medical treatment. How to access Hub and Yaw sections of wind turbine generators and how to rescue a casualty from these areas are crucial. We are experts in this type of training, and we have invested in Advanced Wind Turbine Generator Simulators and facilities, allowing us to provide both Hub Rescue and Advanced Rescue training courses. We have designed our Nacelle Unit to cater for numerous designs of Wind Turbines, allowing the courses to be bespoke depending on individual customer demands. These courses cover all aspects of a rescue allowing a realistic environment to prepare the delegates for emergency situations in the challenging and remote Wind Turbine environment’, finishes John Abate
Improving operational performance is another area of great interest in the industry. Addressing cultural differences and improving leadership of cross cultural workforces will become increasingly important.
Frank Holst Christoffersen, Managing Director of Maersk Training in Esbjerg explains: ‘Improving operational performance is a big issue for our customers. Our training is based on the simple fact that well trained and competent personnel work safer, smarter and faster and make fewer mistakes. It’s really as simple as that. All experience from working with our existing customers in the wind industry and other related offshore industries, tells us that our training set-up and learning philosophy can substantially reduce Lost Time Incidents (LTI’s).’
Training close to reality – a better learning experience
Maersk Training’s learning philosophy is about much more than just textbook theory – it is based on training methods that involve people and bring their knowledge into operation. This philosophy goes for both classroom and practical training.
‘It is what people remember when they are back in their normal working environment that’s important’, says Frank Holst Christoffersen and continues: ‘People tend to forget what they just hear or read, but they also seem to forget training when it’s too far away from their daily reality – that’s why we plan and design our training to the reality of the people we train. We want our course participants to train under demanding and realistic conditions – we are not just training for certificates – we are training for competency. It’s all about achieving the highest learning retention rates as possible, and achieving the highest learning level from every training hour and session. That’s why we will never stop our investment into realistic training facilities and advanced simulators.’
Extensive Offshore Wind Training portfolio
To meet the increasingly complex requests of our customers, Maersk Training has developed what is possibly the most advanced and extensive training portfolio on the market for the offshore industry.
John Abate, illustrates: ‘We have a very broad portfolio. We are providing the industry standard entry-level training such as GWO Basic Safety Training (BST), GWO Basic Technical Training (BTT), plus CCNSG Safety Passport and Refresher training.’
‘In addition, we have also developed more advanced training, including the Competent Rotorblade Technician, Hub Rescue, Advanced Rescue, Advanced First Aid training, Banksman Slinger, Human Element Leadership Management for Renewables Industry, Personal Fall Protection Equipment Inspector and Drone Pilot training. We also offer a range of Siemens accredited technical training, and a variety of Health and Safety training including IOSH Managing Safely and NEBOSH National General Certificate in Occupational Health & Safety.’
‘Currently, we are extending our product portfolio, in collaboration with Maersk Training in Svendborg, to meet the increasingly complex demands of our customers. We are offering Crew Resource Management training, Cross Cultural Leadership training and Emergency Response training. This extension also includes simulator or on-site based crane training and immersive maritime simulations for Installation vessels”, says Frank Holst Christoffersen. “It’s quite a comprehensive extension, but by training the team dynamics, as well as individual personnel, our customers will achieve a safer working environment and increase their operational performance. We already have strong indications this type of training has reduced wind farm installation costs, through a smoother and more effective operation.’