Offshore Energies Magazine - Winter 2022/23

Streamlined operations Workers are regularly obliged to repeat training when moving between sectors, incurring substantial financial costs, often at personal expense, and having to make a considerable time commitment. For the employer, financial costs and lost work days are also a burden that streamlining could counteract. But such frustrations should vanish into the past. OPITO and Renewables UK have worked together to cross-recognise training programmes. The cross industry recognition of different Sea Survival and Basic Firefighting units alone will reduce re-training requirements by an estimated day and a half. OPITO has also worked closely with other training providers including Cogent Skills, ECITB, IMCA and Renewables UK to map technical qualifications for key technical roles. Together, the Integrated People and Skills Strategy (PSS), and the North Sea Transition Deal which it supports, aim to ensure that the UK government and the offshore oil and gas sector can meet emissions

Specifically, the skills passport will display an individual worker’s current qualifications and the required qualifications to transition into another energy sector. It will allow users to prove that they have the recognised qualifications and training needed to access worksites. In addition, by displaying which qualifications and certificates are recognised and required for roles in each sector of the industry – hydrocarbon, renewable, carbon capture, use and storage and hydrogen – it will help the workforce identify and plan future career pathways and skills needs. The passport addresses the major problem of unclear and fragmented pathways for skilled workers trying to move between the different sectors of the offshore energy industry. The current lack of an integrated framework leads to huge frustration, delays, costs and alienation as workers encounter barriers to a smooth transition such as the repetition and duplication of training.

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