When you first walk through the front doors of the Gulf Technical and Safety Training Centre (GTSC), you are immediately greeted by bright-coloured posters promoting the centre’s latest safety training courses and programmes, and there are many, so claims the Training Centre’s Corporate General Manager, Mario Nahas.
The centre, providing mainly Technical and Safety training for the Oil and Gas sector, has recently obtained approval from the International Association for Drilling Contractors (IADC), USA for two major certifications – Drilling Diploma and Well Testing. The facility has become the first of its kind in the world to offer such a certification.
The programme consists of classroom learning, practicals on drilling simulators and rig and field experiences developing students’ skills. The duration of this programme is 24 weeks and it is mainly aimed for fresh graduate Engineers. As for Well Testing, it has two parts, 1) is to certify the already experienced personnel working in the field such as Operators and Supervisors, and 2) to develop personnel in order to be Operators.
Other GTSC training courses and programmes IADC/IWCF accreditation in Well Intervention (Wireline, Coiled Tubing and Snubbing) and Drilling, Completion and Workover. The centre also provides technical short term courses in the upstream and downstream sectors and a Competency Training Programme in HSE.
Gaps in the market
“We look for gaps in the market especially in the GCC,” says Nahas. “I am interested in the Middle East and North Africa and what needs to be developed [here] and that’s why we go the extra mile by developing programmes, and obtain accreditation so the industries will have competent personnel for any job required in the Industry.
“Our contribution in developing the personnel is well rewarded by fewer accidents and we are sure that this is the aim of companies that want to have competent people in Technical & Safety positions in order to ensure safe operating environments.”
Nahas’ colleague and GTSC general manager Mohammed Al Mashibi is equally sanguine about the centre’s ability to meet the training requirements of the oil and gas industry.
“This centre is second to none for safety, it is number one in the region,” he says. They needed the technical side to be strengthened because a technical centre needs a technical person to run it so that’s why I joined and that’s my objective now.
“We have made special courses, customised for the requirement for drilling technicians, it’s like a patent of GTSC, we are making courses that nobody is currently offering,” he adds.
The convincing game
Al Mashibi, who is tasked to run GTSC UAE as its General Manager (GTSC has branches in Egypt, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria) is on a mission to encourage employers to send their personnel for the centre’s hands-on training programmes in order to achieve the right competency level.
“Unfortunately, some of the employers believe that the egg should come before chicken,” he says.
GTSC’s new programmes with the aid of Simulators helps to certify Assistant Drillers and allows them to become certified Drillers in six months instead of the 18+ months that were required in the older programmes.
He explains that the experience of training at GTSC goes further than simply making a profit, it is also about providing a professional and quality training service for the region’s oil and gas operators, so their personnel will be competent either in Safety or Technical or in both, as they are interconnected in order to achieve zero accidents.
Al Mashibi says there are definitely intangible benefits to be gained for oil companies sending their personnel to an independent facility like GTSC.
With the number of accreditations, memberships and certifications covering both Technical & Safety, GTSC’s aim with the experience of its international staff available is to make anyone trained competent in their jobs. There is very little ground left to cover says GTSC’s Nahas, describing the centre’s growing list of training programmes. “There’s nothing left in the market,” he jokes.
