Prof. Rita Marcella, Dean of the Aberdeen Business School, speaking at the Opito1 safety and competency conference last month, stated that the prime driver behind health, safety and emergency response training was the risk of a major accident. Marcella questioned the efficacy of much of today’s training. Anecdotal evidence suggests that training standards are not always high and there is a need for greater personal responsibility for training, more realistic ER simulation and improved safety leadership. There are significant differences in the quality of training delivered around the world. To fix this, Marcella advocates a common, global standard to provide ‘consistency across all international locations, resulting in improved quality of training and more capable emergency response personnel. Such a standard would be a benchmark for organizations to assess requirements of jobs and resources. The problem though is not a lack of HSE standards, rather that there are too many that impact an oil and gas company. Marcella believes that by working with the standards bodies, with industry and government, a global standards framework is achievable. This would ultimately benefit all with better workforce mobility, reduced training costs and the assurance of best-practice emergency response from better standards and information and technology sharing at times of crisis. More from www.opito.com.
1 Opito is an employer and trade union led organization providing skills, training and workforce development to the oil and gas industry.
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