Established in 1975, Petans is well-known by oil and gas workers in East Anglia for providing safety and emergency response training.
However, with the region increasingly becoming a major offshore wind hub, the renewables sector has become a key area of delivery for the company in recent years.
The business now specialises in delivering accredited training to those working in the wider energy sector from its premises close to Norwich Airport.
“Over the years we have seen many societal and innovative changes in energy production, but one thing remains: the need to keep the workforce safe,” said Ian Richards, training and operations manager.
“When Petans was established, it was very much to support the oil and gas workforce. However, as the energy sector evolved, Petans had to as well.”
In 2012, the newly established Global Wind Organisation (GWO) released a set of basic standards designed to support an injury-free work environment in the offshore wind industry.
These standards set a framework for delivering safety training and emergency procedures that accredited providers must demonstrate they can meet annually through an audit process.
GWO is a non-profit organisation whose members are leading turbine manufacturers and owners from around the world. They share their knowledge and experience to create training standards for approved training providers such as Petans to deliver.
“Although Petans had provided training to support the local – and then quite small – renewables community, prior to 2012 there was limited demand and no common training requirement for those working on offshore wind turbines,” said Ian.
“Even after GWO launched the Basic Safety Standard, we did not see any real demand until 2015/16 which is when Petans began investing in the infrastructure to deliver the GWO Basic Safety Training course.”
Since the course began in 2012, it has changed in duration and is now delivered over 4.5 days during which delegates complete training and assessment in five different elements: safe working at height, sea survival, first aid, fire awareness and manual handling.
In the past five years, Petans has seen demand for GWO Basic Safety Training almost double, and with the recent developments in the region, it is hoped that interest will continue to increase.
In recognition of the growing demand for GWO training, Petans will launch the two-day Enhanced First Aid training course next month.
“Last year GWO launched a new safety standard for enhanced first aid following feedback from its members,” said Ian. “The new Enhanced First Aid training course has been designed to enable participants to support and care for others working in the industry.
“The initial course is completed over two days and is a mixture of theoretical and practical teaching and assessment.
“The aim of the course is to ensure that those working in offshore wind possess the knowledge, skills and ability to administer safe, effective and immediate first aid measures to save lives.”
For more information, visit petans.co.uk, email info@petans.co.uk or call 01603 891255.
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