Training is profitable resource

TRAINING to improve safety on offshore gas and oil rigs is crucial to the industry’s prosperity, says Employment and Training Minister Graham Kierath.

Mr Kierath said a greater emphasis on safety was also a signpost to a more efficient and cost-effective resources industry.

He said over the past five or six years new oil and gas production ventures had stimulated an average $2 billion annual investment in Australia’s resources sector.

“If anything, the slowdown in our regional market in recent months has sharpened our awareness that we need a highly trained and skilled workforce to make the most of our opportunities,” Mr Kierath said.

The Australian Oil and Gas Industry Training Centre established at Central TAFE in March 1998 is already proving successful in training operators for oil and gas well control, well site processing and environmental technology.

“Trainees are exposed to some of the most sophisticated software models and training simulators in use,” Mr Kierath said.