More than 500,000 offshore oil and gas workers in 40 countries have been trained to health and safety standards set by Opito.
The energy skills body, which has its headquarters in Aberdeen, said yesterday there were now 127 training centres around the world delivering its 103 courses. Its latest figures compare with just 38 approved centres and 59,000 Opito-trained workers in 2005.
The expansion comes after Opito launched its international division in 2009, which led to offices opening in Dubai, Kuala Lumpur and Houston.
Opito chief executive David Doig said: “Our role internationally is to take the approach adopted in the UK and tailor it for each oil and gas province so that the industry’s mobile global workforce is trained to the same high standards, improving competency and safety in oil and gas around the world and, ultimately, saving lives.”
Mr Doig said that at a UK level Opito had trained more than 1,300 people through an industry-wide modern apprenticeship scheme which started in 2000.
He added: “Bringing almost 1,500 new people into the UK industry underlines the return on investment in skills and training through Opito.
“However, the extraordinarily high levels of North Sea activity are yet again exacerbating our underlying skills shortages.
“We simply do not have enough people with the skills that the industry demands, and we must ramp up our activity to ensure that we build a robust and sustainable pipeline of skilled people coming in.”
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