The Fugro Academy is designed as a three-tiered training programme. Tier 3 - Professional and Technical Level - is business line specific, focused on developing the technical skills required by a broad range of personnel categories to undertake the work that Fugro performs. Courses planned will take professional and technical staff from induction through to specialist professional levels of expertise.

The current upsurge in demand for ROV services in the oil and gas sector is creating a substantial challenge for technical service contractors supplying the resources. Fugro's response has been to commit to designing and building a fleet of new generation deep-water ROVs, and to invest in a longterm programme of recruitment and training for ROV pilots / technicians within the Fugro Academy framework.

ROV induction course elements embrace core ROV technologies, including hydraulics, electronics, and mechanical systems. Other issues include vessel operations and how they interact with the ROV; launch and recovery systems; umbilical equipment and other potentially vulnerable sub-systems. Students are introduced to an ROV simulator and practice navigation and flying skills in typical operational scenarios.

A trainee on the ROV simulator

Candidates that completed the November '06 ROV Trainee Induction Programme

Training is given on survey techniques and drilling operations as well as subsea engineering and how ROV services relate and interface to these activities. At regular intervals, there are workshop opportunities to inspect and gain hands-on experience with specific equipment discussed in each of the classroom presentations.

The expected outcome is a trainee ROV pilot-technician equipped with sufficient knowledge to be a productive and safe member of an ROV team.

Source: crossSECTION-online