Intertek, a leading quality solutions provider to industries worldwide, is partnering with social enterprise Transition Extreme to enhance safety training for the oil and gas sector.
The Aberdeen-based extreme sports centre, which provides urban sports activities and youth work support, is the setting for a new suite of training courses from Intertek’s Consulting & Training (C&T) team. These are designed to underpin positive safety approaches for those in safety critical roles in offshore operations.
Incorporating high ropes training and indoor climbing activities means that delegates can experience an element of risk in a safe environment. This drives home the importance of verifying and assuring how safe a situation is, and the importance of teamwork to reduce risk.
Maxine Fawcett, Regional Principal Consultant at Intertek C&T, said: “Our clients come from a high risk industry. They need to develop an instinctive approach to safety rather than it being a passive tick box exercise. People learn through lived experiences, not purely presentations, so we want participants to have a close up but controlled encounter of potentially hazardous situations.
“To get the skill or understanding really bedded into how people think and behave, or ‘in the muscle’ as we call it, we partnered with Transition Extreme to deliver real life learning where personal risk and responsibility comes to the fore and the interdependence of the team is really driven home. No one can be a passenger in this training and it changes how people think about procedure, safety checks and verification, taking lessons from the climbing wall onto the drill floor.”
As well as providing a new method for delivering important safety messages, Intertek C&T also values the partnership on a community level, as the relationship is a socially responsible endeavour to support a local charity, and also assist the ongoing sustainability of Transition Extreme by utilising the facilities during down time.
Transition Extreme facilitates the activities and Intertek works with experts at the organisation to jointly develop exercises. The working partnership has been a success so far with plans to roll out these practical sessions across further Intertek courses.
Grahame Paterson, CEO of Transition Extreme, said: “In our work with young people we stretch the boundaries of what they can achieve and take them out of their comfort zones in a responsible way. There are synergies in this approach in our partnership with Intertek and we are pleased to be able to support this important safety training. It also demonstrates how Transition Extreme can offer a first class environment for professional training and development, and underlines our own commitment to safety and risk management as an organisation.”
Intertek C&T provides a range services for the oil and gas industry. This includes specialist solutions for culture and behaviour change, assurance, improved technical or leadership skills and operational excellence to help clients enhance their safety culture and behaviour, as well as technical and personal development.
Transition Extreme is a social enterprise using urban sports and their cultures to attract and engage the local youth population. Established in 2007, the charity is one of the region's leading youth work organisations, delivering support through sport to hundreds of young people every year.