Major Subsea Skills Shortage Helps Attract Ex-Forces Personnel

With a number of Armed Forces personnel being made redundant, it’s little wonder Forces personnel are looking towards careers within the buoyant oil and gas industry, where their skills can be effectively transferred into a sustainable future.

Those looking to recruit Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) pilot technicians tend to target professionals who can offer a variety of skills, including electronics, hydraulics or engineering. Often, ex-Forces personnel have the appropriate skill-set and also have experience of similar working conditions, such as working away from home for long periods of time.

David Vaughan is just one example of a former member of the Forces, who has made the successful career change into the lucrative subsea industry through training at The Underwater Centre. ‘Having been in the Royal Navy Submarine Service Sensors Specialist since 1997, David Vaughan decided that the time was right for a career change. The Underwater Centre is a preferred supplier for the armed forces, so Dave was able to use his resettlement as part payment towards the cost of his course. In February 2008 he signed up for The Underwater Centre’s Premium ROV Course.‘I did a lot of online research and looked through the various resettlement magazines available to me at the Naval bases. I also liked the lifestyle that would come with a subsea career, and a challenge I was not getting in the Forces – the money was also very appealing!

‘I chose The Underwater Centre, Fort William, as it had good reviews and a good reputation from some of my colleagues that had attended the Centre, so I opted to go there and was very pleased with the training.

‘The course was very well run, and all instructors took time and effort after hours to answer or teach any module we as a class or individual did not fully understand. The skills I learned at the Centre gave me the basic understanding to hone and improve my skills while offshore in the ROV industry.

‘The seven-week course provided both classroom-based learning, as well as practical, hands-on skills with flying a live ROV from the Centre’s dedicated pier in Fort William. The combination of classroom and practical teaching meant that, whatever we learned in the classroom, in a book, we could thenapply immediately to the ROV itself and understand its practical use. We would spend some days in the classroom, and the other days we would spend on the pier, launching the ROV, undertaking sector searches, diver observation, etc. It was great that the course wasn’t all based in theclassroom: we completed about eight hours of live flying time during my time in Fort William.

‘I won’t lie, the course was hard work and there was a lot of studying done out with the classroom and pier work in our free time, but because the course was only seven weeks long, it was OK. ‘I have been in the industry for a few years now, and have worked for BEKK Solutions in Hong Kong, which is a major diving and tunnelling company. I worked as a technician mobilising their dive spreads in the Middle East and Asia Pacific. I have also worked for Mermaid Maritime Offshore in Thailand, Brunei, Brazil and China, and for HALUL Offshore in Qatar. The ROVs I have worked on are mainly SeaEye inspection vehicles, Sub-Atlantic SuperMowhawk inspection vehicles and, recently, work-class SMD Quasar Compact.’

To find out more information on the courses offered, or to understand more about the industry and the range of careers that are available, visit www.theunderwatercentre.com/fort-william/rov-training/rov-careers/ or call +44 1397 703 786