AIS Preps DeepOcean for Upcoming Offshore Wind Projects

AIS Training has secured a contract with offshore cable installation contractor, DeepOcean to upskill its workers as the company prepares to deliver several new contract wins.

The scope of the contract will see AIS train up to 100 of DeepOcean’s workers in mandatory global wind qualifications at its industrial training village in North Shields.

Anna Greenstreet, senior offshore crewing coordinator at DeepOcean, said: “After winning several large offshore wind projects for the transporting, installation and trenching of inter-array and export cables, we had a requirement to train a substantial number of staff quickly in Global Wind Organisation (GWO) standards.

“The wind industry in the UK is still relatively young and mandatory training requirements are constantly evolving. Some of our new contracts needed staff to be trained to GWO standards in skills such as working at height, sea survival, firefighting, first aid and manual handling. We chose AIS Training as our preferred supplier as the company has invested heavily over the past few years and offers outstanding facilities and expert instructors.

“As much of this new work starts almost immediately, we needed extremely fast turnaround times so that suitably qualified staff could be deployed into the field and AIS Training bent over backwards to accommodate our needs. As well as being extremely flexible in terms of course dates, the company was happy to take additional delegates and changes in delegates at a moment’s notice. In addition, AIS offered value-added services such as the supply of rope access and working at height equipment as part of the contract.”

Gayle McCann, business development manager at AIS Training, said: “We are delighted to be working with DeepOcean to help it improve the safety and competency of its workforce.

“AIS Training delivers over 300 industry-approved courses to more than 25,000 delegates annually from three world-class sites in Aberdeen, Grimsby and Newcastle so are well equipped to handle this prestigious contract. We specialise in offshore training and have seen a significant upturn in activity from the UK wind sector as the industry experiences a surge in new large offshore wind projects coming on-stream.”