Andie Marshall, business manager at Petans, explains how the firm tailors its professional training to the needs of offshore clients.
The energy sector is a huge part of the East Anglian economy. At Petans, we very much see ourselves as an integral part of the local supply chain – and hope that’s where our clients and customers see us too.
As a registered charity, our ethos involves reinvesting in our training centre and offer market-leading training facilities to our clients and delegates.
It also means that, although we must operate under commercial terms, we can look to invest in training to support local needs. This also allows us as an independent and specialist training provider to work flexibly to help our client base.
We are often contacted to help our clients with urgent training demands and will often put short courses on at late notice to help crews mobilise.
Some of our clients like their teams to train as a group, so we arrange block training sessions which meet both the standards of the awarding body and the preferences of the client.
We think being responsive is key and are always happy to look at innovative solutions to help our customers.
Enquiries often come from interesting locations – for example, we were recently contacted by a customer working on a wind turbine who had a confined space query that our training and operations manager helped with.
The fact that someone thought to phone Petans for help whilst working in the North Sea speaks volumes to the value we can add over and above that of training provision.
Putting clients first
One area Petans is currently looking to invest in is the delivery of OPITO Rigger and Banksman/Slinger courses. The region recently lost a supplier of these courses, putting extra cost and time pressures on companies and their staff, as they must now travel over 200 miles for training.
Although it is not something we had delivered before, we were contacted by a few of our clients to see if we could help. Now, we are looking forward to exploring how we can put these courses on to show our commitment to the local industry.
The courses require significant planning and investment but, at this stage, it looks really promising that we will be able to help the region, our clients and our customers.
We value the close relationship between Petans and those working in the energy sector locally. We realise that repeat business is key to not only our success but – most importantly – the safety of those that attend our training and who take the skills and knowledge back to their places of work.
Experience counts
Petans has provided professional safety and survival training for the offshore energy sector both in the UK and worldwide for nearly 50 years.
Based just outside Norwich, close to Norwich Airport, the company delivers accredited training to the requirements of OPITO, MCA, HSE, GWO and City & Guilds.
We also provide specific training requirements to the wider energy sector and beyond – including local authority fire and rescue services, nuclear power stations, MOD and industrial fire teams throughout the UK.
North Sea gas was first discovered in 1965 with production starting the following year, while commercial oil production commenced in 1975.
This new and rapidly growing industry demonstrated that safety training would be key to its success – and in 1975, Petans was established as a charity known as the Petroleum Training Association (North Sea), before changing its name to Petans in 1984.
Our purpose from the beginning is still very much at the core of our charitable purpose today: to provide safety, survival and emergency response training for those employed in the petroleum industry in the North Sea.
Petans has quickly adapted to reflect changes in the offshore energy sector and its associated training needs. We are very aware of the transition to net zero and have expanded our training delivery to support this.
We also know that, whilst this transition takes place, it is essential that Petans continues to support the oil and gas sector. The newly-awarded licences in the Southern North Sea demonstrate this – and we are keen to ensure the region remains economically viable and safe.
For more information, please email info@petans.co.uk, call 01603 891255 or visit petans.co.uk
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