SPOTLIGHT ON THE TYNE FEATURE SPONSOR
IMPROVING VESSEL HANDLING TRAINING IN A FAST GROWING INDUSTRY
The Tyne sits strong in the fast paced and fast growing offshore renewables industry but amid the many opportunities and technological advances created in this sector, an archaic oversight exists that must be addressed.
This is the immediate need to improve the training of vessel handling, an issue highlighted by a series of accidents where human error has been blamed.
PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION The industry has identified that skippers of boats transferring workers to offshore renewable energy facilities, including wind farms, often have not had the opportunity to improve their skills to ensure those workers’ safety as they switch from vessels.
This gap has led to a series of accidents and near misses by those crewing ships miles out to sea, bringing into sharp focus the lack of specialist training programmes for those in such positions of responsibility.
INCREASED OFFSHORE WORK Offshore renewable energy has brought a steep increase in people working offshore in often quite treacherous and variable weather conditions, and their training requirements are met to an extremely high standard.
BOAT TRANSFERS
An area where numerous challenges remain is that of boat transfers. The safe transference from vessels is an essential skill and training courses are in place for those whose work requires them to go from vessel to, for example, wind farms.
The industry has identified that many skippers have backgrounds in the fishing or leisure industries where they have been
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crewing vessels far smaller than those they now need to operate, yet there is currently no training in place to re-train or upskill them.
SIMULATION TRAINING
One way this can be rectified is through simulation training, which has been identified as a valuable training method and one which is expected to be used to great effect in the years ahead.
Experts fear their worst predictions of a major marine accident will come true unless improved training is quickly implemented.
Simulation training offers a valuable way forward for an industry that is fast-changing and must remain alert to every new challenge and danger.
South Tyneside College
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