Online learning offshore

Apache North Sea Ltd, an independent exploration and production company with operations worldwide including the United States, Western Australia, China, and the United Kingdom, is bringing life back to the Forties field, the largest oil field in the UK sector of the North Sea.

Almost 1500 Apache and contract employees have access to the full catalogue of courses available through learndirect scotland. These employees include over 1000 offshore workers who can access the courses through dedicated training rooms and web cafés, available on each of the five Forties oil platforms.

Employees are able to continue their learning when they are off-shift, at any one of over 480 learndirect scotland branded learning centres across the country.

For the first few weeks of the project, staff from one of those branded learning centres, The Evolve Training Centre, were on hand at the Apache heliport to help workers changing shifts to get started on the learning programme.

Courses available range from basic computer and internet skills to professional development qualifications.

John Crum, managing director of Apache North Sea Ltd launched the Offshorebytes project. He was joined by learndirect scotland chief executive, Frank Pignatelli, and John Ramsay, chief executive of Cogent, the sector skills council for chemicals, nuclear, oil and gas, petroleum and polymer industries and a non-executive director of learndirect scotland.

John Crum said: “At Apache North Sea we are committed to the continuing development of our staff. By taking advantage of e-learning we are providing access to a wide range of courses that we hope will stimulate both personal and professional development, and increase job satisfaction.”

Frank Pignatelli said: “For some time, learndirect scotland has been researching the best way to stimulate lifelong learning. An obvious way to do this is to make the tools to learn as accessible as possible. Offshorebytes is doing precisely this, bringing learning to offshore workers who live and work in a unique environment where learning is both challenging and essential.

”The oil and gas industry is a huge employer throughout Scotland, employing 6% of the country’s workforce. Hopefully Apache’s lead will encourage other oil and gas organisations to get involved in offshore learning, making workplace learning a reality for an increased number of Scots.”