Competence Assurance and Assessment in the Offshore Survey Sector
The IMCA guidance on competence assurance and assessment assists contractors in ensuring and demonstrating the competence of personnel working offshore in safety critical positions.
In the offshore survey sector, guidance currently extends to the following positions:
- Party chief
- Senior surveyor
- Senior survey engineer
- Senior geophysicist
- Senior inspection engineer
- Senior data processor
- Surveyor Grade I
- Survey engineer Grade I
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- Geophysicist Grade I
- Inspection engineerin Grade I
- Data Processor Grade I
- Surveyor Grade II
- Survey engineer Grade II
- Geophysicist Grade II
- Inspection engineer Grade II
- Data processor Grade II
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For each job, entry level qualifications and acceptance criteria are listed. For example the entry level qualifications for a junior geophysicist are a qualification in an appropriate geoscience-related subject or a recognised geography or geological qualification or approved military service qualification, plus an appropriate offshore medical and valid survival certificate. In addition, applicants for such a position would be expected to have two years of relevant experience, be self-motivated team players, and have good oral and written communication skills in the working language of the region in which they would be working.
Various subjects are then given for competence assessment. Accompanying each of these is a summary of the knowledge required, a way to demonstrate competence, and acceptance criteria. For example, for the junior geophysicist, software competence would require a knowledge of basic offline quality control and processing software and interpretation workstation tools. Competence should be assessed by an appropriate person in the junior geophysicist’s company, and should be recorded in a logbook.
With much of the sector's workforce employed through agencies, IMCA's contractor members have been keen to involve such organisations in the development and implementation of the guidance framework. A number of successful workshops have been held, with valuable feedback taken onboard, a dedicated membership category to enable better information and dialogue, and an extensive freelance competence information pack to assist in development of individual portfolios of work records and competence assessments.
For full details on IMCA's work and guidance on competence assurance assessment, please visit our Competence & Training pages.
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