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24 December 2002

 Fiona Ogilvie reviews training for the demanding profession which has    played a crucial role in the history of North Sea hydrocarbon exploration    and recovery, and which helped change the British economy forever.

These days, you can fly to Fremantle in Western Australia and obtain an internationally recognised diving qualification at what is probably the best diver training school in the world - and still pay less than you would for a similar course here in the UK. But it wasn't always necessary to travel quite that far to get a good diving qualification.

In the early days of North Sea hydrocarbon exploration, the fatality rate amongst divers working offshore was appalling. It was at it's worst during the mid 70's when, every year, around 10% of the offshore diving workforce died in work-related accidents in the North Sea. At that time, divers received virtually no training and effective regulation was a joke. Something had to change.

The British Government's Health & Safety Executive (HSE) was compelled to accept the poison chalice. It produced and enforced regulations designed to mitigate the awful attrition rate and to protect the safety of divers working in the North Sea - and the HSE diving qualifications were finally introduced. All companies undertaking diving operations in the United Kingdom Continental Shelf (UKCS) were obliged to employ only divers who had been trained to these new HSE guidelines. And for a while, our diving operations, safety and training standards were the envy of the world. But sadly the international spot-light is again turning upon us, and this time it's focused on the quality of our diver training standards.

However, other countries continue to excel. In the United States, the Association of Diving Contractors (ADC) Diver Certification scheme is evolving into an internationally recognised standard of competence.

Unlike the government controlled diver training standards in the UK and Australia, the ADC is essentially a collective of commercial organisations. Nonetheless, ADC diver training standards are rigorously controlled and monitored, and errant member companies are severely castigated. The ADC scheme meets the voluntary American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard.

The country whose diver training regulatory system most closely mirrors the UK's HSE is probably Australia. Twenty years ago, Australia's offshore safety culture was driven largely by what was happening in the North Sea. Today, Australia has it's own internationally recognised training standard, and it intends to preserve it.

It's important to look at this in a historical context. The British government has no jurisdiction or authority to enforce its HSE standards outside British waters, nor has it ever sought to do so. However, until recently, a number of major international offshore operating companies insisted on divers having a British HSE diving certificate to the virtual exclusion of other qualifications and regardless of the geographic location of specific diving operations. The only place to obtain an HSE qualification was at a UK school.

So, for a time, administrative convenience superseded common sense. In effect, the operating [commercial] companies promoted the British government's HSE diving qualification as an international industry standard and, in so doing, suppressed the development of more appropriate regional alternatives.

Things are very different now. The international offshore industry's safety culture has thankfully changed beyond recognition. Competence, in diver training standards, as in all human operational tasks offshore, usually takes precedence over administrative convenience. And professionally trained, safe, competent divers save money - and reputations. We could learn much from the standard of diver training available at some foreign training schools and from the way in which they monitor diver training standards.

Paul Butler is the Commonwealth Government of Australia's Director of Offshore Safety and he is determined to preserve Australia's safety record and diver training standards -

"The ADAS diving qualification is the mechanism through which we regulate, operate and monitor diver training standards in Australia. The fact that ADAS qualified divers are now internationally regarded as amongst the safest and most effectively trained in the world is a source of great pride to me and my department. Moreover, it is also a testament to industry's confidence in the ability of ADAS qualified divers and an endorsement of the Australian schools which train them".

"I regard the control and oversight of Australia's rigorously high standards of occupational diver training as a critical element in maintaining our overall diving safety record. The safety record of diving operations in Australia's offshore petroleum industry is one of the best in the world".

"Preservation of that enviable record and the appropriate discharge of it's responsibility to protect the health and safety of those individuals under its direct care, requires the Commonwealth Government to monitor and regulate for the ever-changing demands and activities of industry".

"This is especially true in the case of occupational diving where the training for and execution of work tasks requires exposing the individual to extreme [controlled] risk".

"Therefore, in an effort to improve the regulation of offshore diving safety and to foster an industry culture of [continuous] improvement in the standards of best practice, the Commonwealth Government will shortly be replacing the old prescriptive "Standing Directions" on diving safety with new "Objective Based" regulations".

Kevin Lloyd is a British diver who elected to do his diver training in Australia rather than at home in the UK -

"I wanted to do my diver training but I couldn't find anybody to say a good word about the standard of commercial diver training in the UK today. People train here because they think there's no choice and they're led to believe that employers world-wide will only accept HSE qualifications - they're wrong on both counts".

"The diving business has changed a lot. UK and international employers now recognise the superior training delivered overseas. I did my training in Australia and I've never come across a situation where the Australian ADAS certificate is considered unacceptable by an employer. In fact, most international employers and students know that some countries now have significantly higher diver training and standards than those currently available in the UK".

"A lot of divers reckon that we're approaching a situation where presenting a recently obtained UK diving qualification to a potential employer exposes the holder of that qualification to the very real risk of making an admission of sub-standard safety and capability, rather than evidence of competence and professionalism. What can we do about that?" It's no wonder employers are beginning to express a preference for overseas qualified divers - faced with the choice between certainty and doubt regarding a newly trained diver's safety and competence, who can blame them?"

"I did my diver training at the Underwater Centre in Fremantle, Western Australia. Ian Milliner, the guy who runs the Fremantle school, is a consummate professional and his dedication and competence inspires every individual in his team - especially the students". I'm obviously biased, but I genuinely believe that I left Western Australia having received the best diver training currently available anywhere in the world today. "I've experienced no difficulty whatsoever getting UK work with my Australian diving qualifications and I know that employers on the Pacific Rim accept ADAS qualified divers without hesitation".

Colin Murphy was Managing Director of Australia's largest privately owned diving company, Contract Diving Services (CDS) prior to it's sale to American Oilfield Divers Inc. He is currently a Director of Australia's fastest growing commercial diving company, Allied Diving Services -

With over 25 years' experience employing divers for Australian and international diving operations, Colin Murphy knows more than most people about the evolution of occupational diving and the genesis of diver training standards in both Australia and Britain -

"Our clients here and overseas are as determined as we are to preserve Australia's safety record". "I've seen the Australian ADAS diver training standard evolve over the last two decades to achieve the international acclaim that it richly deserves. As an Australian, I'm immensely proud of that. As a businessman, the reputation of our company depends on the competence of the divers we employ. These days, with newly trained divers, we're not just interested in what certificates they have but which school they trained at; it can make a huge difference."

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For more information contact:

TUCF
8 Rous Head Road, North Fremantle, WA 6159, Australia
Tel: +61 8 9336 3343
FAX: +61 8 9336 3345
Email: milly@tucf.com.au