Salus Technical has secured a significant contract to provide process safety training for all employees at North Sea E&P group Serica Energy.
The Aberdeen-based process safety specialist will offer its recently launched online process safety course to Serica Energy’s UK workforce, with 250 delegates signed up to complete the module.
A small group from Serica completed a successful trial of the ‘Process Safety Awareness’ course before committing to the on-demand training, worth some £55,000, which will be accessible over a three-year period.
Salus launched the course in September last year to address a backlog of safety training requirements from energy industry professionals following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The firm’s founder and managing director David Jamieson said his team had been “blown away” by the positive feedback received on the module so far.
Several other UK offshore operators are currently undergoing trials of the course, and Mr Jamieson said he was “hopeful that the content will resonate those organisations, as it did with Serica Energy.”
Serica integrity and process safety manager Andrew Sekulin said the company was committed to continuous improvement of its safety performance, which is why it had chosen to roll the scheme out across the organisation.
“The content allows us to set the standard for process safety and make sure that everyone understands their role in major accident prevention, whether they work in HR, accounting, engineering or in frontline operations,” he explained.
“Our employees can access it in the office, offshore or while working from home, and the short bite-sized format works really well for us.”
The course aligns with Process Safety frameworks and leadership principles from accredited institutions including the International Association of Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP), the Institution of Chemical Engineers (IChemE) and Offshore Energies UK (OEUK).
Mr Jamieson added: “The beauty of the course is that although it is targeted at those working in high-hazard industries, it is designed for non-safety professionals, so personnel in a range of disciplines can benefit from it. Serica Energy obviously saw this benefit, as they have opened up the learning opportunity to each and every member of staff.
“I truly believe that everyone understanding the basics of process safety is the most effective way of preventing major accidents, but we appreciate that rolling out training and initiatives to the whole workforce can be difficult, so we have removed as many barriers as we can.”
His comments follow an illuminating HSE Conference hosted by OEUK in Aberdeen last week, in which delegates urged the sector to be more transparent in sharing data around incidents and safety lessons to improve overall performance.
Salus, meanwhile, plans to build further courses in 2023, which will also support its objective of making hazardous environments safer workplaces.