Press Release

IMCA's COMPETENCE STANDARDS PROGRESSING WELL

All the hard work put in by IMCA - The International Marine Contractors Association - and itstheir members on their groundbreaking Competence Assurance and Assessment Scheme is about to bear very tangible fruit. Arrangements for ongoing competence assessment of personnel are either already in place or are close to completion. Progress in the ROV Division is about to result in the publication of provisional standards.

Following discussions at the most recent IMCA Training, Certification & Personnel Competence workshop on competence issues, a set of draft ROV competence standards has been developed to complement the Scheme. These are basically high level standards, which provide assessment of the various competences for each of the four ROV safety-critical positions - ROV Supervisor, Senior ROV Pilot Technician, ROV Pilot Technician Grade 1, and ROV Pilot Technician Grade 2. "Once the standards have been finalised, it is proposed to issue them for a trial period as provisional standards in the form of an Information Note to our members," explains IMCA's Technical Director, Jane Bugler.

Work on the Competence Scheme is also progressing well in other IMCA Divisions. The Offshore Survey Division has extended its original ten offshore survey positions to 16 to cover three data processing and three pipeline inspection positions, and is developing specific essential competences at each level. In order to keep them fully abreast of developments, a meeting is being held with relevant personnel agencies on 28 November 2001.

"We are delighted by how the Scheme is progressing. We knew when we launched it in January 1999 to improve safety in the offshore industry by providing a framework within which IMCA members can assess and demonstrate the competence of their 'safety critical personnel' that there was something of a long haul in front of us, but step by step we are getting there!" says Jane Bugler. "There has been a wide take-up throughout our contractor membership as well as a high level of interest from other bodies."

The ROV Information Note is just one publication in a range of documentation accompanying the Scheme, including a guidance document and competence tables for each of the four IMCA divisions (available as a composite volume as well), and a variety of logbooks including the IMCA Record of Competence, a standard format to record qualifications, training and competence assessments. One of the most recent publications is Guidance on Assessor Training, which sets out the areas that should generally be covered during training for assessors, particularly important for those areas of the world without national qualifications in assessment skills. The IMCA website is home to a host of information on the scheme including FAQs at www.imca-int.com/competence/ - with links to the FAQs, overview and other related sections.