#SafetyTrainingDoneSafely
Since reopening in May, Survivex and our sister company, AIS Training have received a flurry of positive feedback from delegates, clients and industry awarding bodies.
We wanted to take you through a typical delegate's journey at our training centres, share a few of the comments we've received from delegates, and highlight our delivery capacities and 'team bubble' courses in this new normal.
Emma Howarth, Group HSEQ Manager, takes us through the delegate journey...
When delegates arrive we ask them to wait until called forward into our reception areas. When they come in they get their temperature checked with a distance thermometer by one of the team who wears personal protective equipment (PPE) and maintains a distance. Once they are happy, delegates are provided with a mask and asked to wash their hands in the newly installed sinks that are foot operated and have hot water, soap and paper towels. This happens on every day of the course, whether in the main reception or the individual training areas. To avoid large numbers of people gathering we have staggered our course start times from 8am-9:15am.
In the reception area our team meet delegates to sign them in and guide them through to their training area. All the areas in our facilities are marked out with floor tape and we have one-way systems operating where possible too.
Whilst in classrooms we have reduced the number of desks and set them 2 meters apart, each one has hand sanitizer and anti bacterial wipes available too. The instructors stay at the front, in a sectioned off area. If they need to come closer or to pass delegates they will put on their face masks. Each desk in our classrooms have a number on, so if one of the delegates were to become positive of COVID-19 everyone can be informed to self isolate. The classrooms and equipment are cleaned at the end of each day by the instructors and all our facilities are cleaned regularly throughout the day by cleaning staff.
We take lunch orders every day and deliver them in paper bags to classrooms, there is also tea, coffee and bottled water available.
We’ve worked hard to implement the processes we have during the lockdown period. However we continually review our feedback sheets and carry out our own internal reviews. If you have any comments on how we could improve further, please send them to us and we’ll implement them where possible.
Find out how we're staying safe in offshore survival.
Delegates give a thumbs-up to measures taken...
Reflecting on her recent offshore survival experience, Linda said: "The COVID-19 measures taken were the best they could be, I can't think of any way of improving them. Thanks to all the team for your patience with a newbie in the pool." (OPITO Basic Offshore Safety Induction and Emergency Training)
Another delegate who completed OPITO Further Offshore Emergency Training (FOET) told us: "Great use of social distancing and safety aspects. Keep up the good work."
And in AIS Training's wind centre a delegate said: “The COVID-19 control measures are excellent. Felt safe through the 3 days.” (GWO Advanced Rescue Training)
Paul Knowles, Vice President for AIS Training and Survivex comments: “This feedback is exceptionally warming to the team who have spent many weeks putting measures in place and walking the delegate journey to ensure no stone was left unturned. We continue to revisit our processes, our facilities on site and the way we deliver courses, striving to ensure safety training is completed safely.
“We continue to operate at about 50% of our usual capacity to ensure social distancing, particularly during practical sessions. However through careful planning we have been able to bring back around 80% of our course portfolio and we’re offering closed-courses for clients with group bookings that hope to keep their groups in a ‘team-bubble’.
“After initially seeing our clients prioritising safety critical training such as survivals and fire training, we are now experiencing increasing demand for skills based training such as rigging and banksman, and we have created additional capacity here also."
Our team are always on hand to answer any questions and take bookings in the following disciplines:
- Offshore survival
- Wind energy (including GWO Blade Repair)
- Medicals
- Lifting operations
- Fabric maintenance (including OPITO Blaster Sprayer
- Working at Height and Confined Spaces
- Crisis Management
- Firefighting
- First Aid
- Health and Safety
- Welding
- Mechanical Joint Integrity (MJI)
- CompEx
- Scaffolding
Facilities and procedures
New safety measures implemented at Survivex include:
- New wash stations at the entrance to every centre
- Sanitiser stations for delegates in all classrooms with our instructors briefed to sanitise all surfaces and door handles before and after every section of the course - including breaks
- New start time procedures, with course start times staggered to avoid large gatherings in the mornings - our delegates with existing bookings will begin to hear from our customer service colleagues about this very soon
- Temperature checks upon arrival at our centres – this is a crucial stage and our first line of defence to prevent the virus from entering our centres
Social distancing
New social distancing measures implemented at Survivex include:
- Signage indicating one-way systems around every centre
- ‘Feet’ markings on the ground to set out expectations for maintaining 2-metre gaps
- Tables and chairs in classrooms placed 2 metres apart
- Reduced course delegate numbers - in some instances to just 4 people to ensure social distancing can be maintained
The GWO Expert Series
The Global Wind Organisation (GWO) recently hosted a "training in the pandemic" webinar as part of an expert series.
Vice President for AIS Training and Survivex, Paul Knowles, and Commercial Director for AIS Training and Survivex, Gavin Taylor, were invited to share their thoughts on GWO training taking place during the COVID-19 pandemic. Watch the full webinar.
