The UK’s Oil & Gas Academy is pushing on relentlessly with both overseas expansion and pumping the message out that there can be no retrenchment in the North Sea because of the current run of low oil prices.
David Doig, chief executive of UK offshore training body Opito and the industry’s academy, told Energy he was bullish about the future. The oil price would bounce back and the international licensing of Opito-accredited training schemes would continue to grow vigorously.
“Sometimes we’re very quick to beat ourselves up … talking of boom and bust. But that’s wrong. It’s boom and then a dip. We don’t go bust because this industry repairs itself,” said Doig at the opening of Opito – The Oil & Gas Academy’s headquarters at Portlethen, near Aberdeen.
He pointed out that the industry had to be primed for the up cycle with the right kind of people.
“We’ve developed an online knowledge assessment tool against industry profiles and we have developed a series of transformation training programmes. People with a skill set can be assessed and then developed over a 12-week transformation programme.
“This industry has better avenues for bringing people back in than it ever did. What we must not do is pull back into our shell and ride the storm. We must be ready for the upturn.”
Doig said the industry pumped £10million into training in 2008 through Opito and its still new academy and would do so again this year and beyond.
“Developing alongside that is an international business that has grown at a massive level,” he revealed.
“We export into 25 countries … New Zealand, all the way through the Gulf and over to the US. That marketplace may take a drop, as you might expect just now, but the strategy remains to develop into new markets where we’re not already.
“On the books right now we have a number of countries coming forward with new training centres that they want us to license to enable training to Opito standards. And that’s where we generate revenues.
“We have new applications from Brazil, India, Indonesia, Libya, Nigeria, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Tunisia, the US and Vietnam.”
Indeed, the Saudi facility is built and the Vung Tu operation in Vietnam, run by Falck Nutec with local partners, has already opened.
Doig said he was aware of the importance of not taking Opito’s eye off the North Sea ball. Equally, he said, it was vital to capitalise on global opportunities.
“We’re populating overseas with high-quality people to protect the brand, to keep the rigour, quality, understand the local needs and service such marketplaces effectively.
“We’re continually bringing people into the UK as well, so we can grow our own resource and then put our people into the various overseas locations. We’re also developing teams indigenous to where we operate.
“There’s one thing I won’t allow, and the board certainly won’t – dilution of what we’ve done here. The model is self-financing. Employers don’t give handouts; there’s no Government money. Every penny we earn comes from our ability to provide quality product and service and then get paid for it.”
