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June 8, 2015

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Delivering technical training to the oil and gas industry

By Caroline Hughes, director at imorph

Technical training can be difficult to deliver, argues Caroline Hughes. She set about creating a training programme that gets key messages across in an engaging manner. 

In the oil and gas industry, technical training can be difficult to deliver. Those delivering the training may not necessarily enjoy the task. As a result, training may be delivered passively and consequently received without much enthusiasm. For many delegates, training courses are simply ‘tick-box’ exercises that fail to take their objectives and learning styles into account, and are completed with minimal engagement. In other words, many training courses are missing the elements that make learning useful and enjoyable.

Despite being critical to operational safety, the highly technical and lengthy content of oil and gas training – which can be very difficult to get across in an engaging manner – tends to be delivered by technical experts, rather than those who are experts in training, ultimately resulting in highly ineffective training programmes. And yet, this is the way much of the industry persists in operating.

For effective learning and delivery, training should be viewed as a skill in itself. Companies should have the ability to take control of their own training programmes and raise the bar in terms of how training is perceived by both their employees and those facilitating the courses. This is true now more than ever, when the current climate means that cost effective, long-term solutions are vital for companies’ steady growth and success.

I set up imorph in 2005 as a result of this situation. After working across oil and gas and manufacturing, both in technical and training capacities, I witnessed “training fatigue” time and again, and realised that in order to create effective training, the delivery methods had to change. I started to research into how we learn and what makes truly effective learning. Helping people learn is my passion and so imorph isn’t just about developing and delivering training, it’s about changing it altogether and creating the most effective and enjoyable ways to learn.

Our ongoing objective is to challenge and change perceptions surrounding industry training and provide trainers with effective skills and the support required to perform at the optimum level. Our bespoke programmes enable clients to take ownership of training and deliver sessions effectively and enthusiastically. Our range of public courses open the doors for those who want to develop their own skills or acquire knowledge and strategies that will enhance the capabilities and outputs of their teams. Ultimately, we want to encourage trainers and delegates to get excited about training that offers real, tangible benefits, skills and knowledge.

The imorph portfolio of products and programmes are developed in-house and often in collaboration with industry experts. We’re passionate about revolutionising the way we train and learn, challenging what is accepted as industry standards and shifting the focus to behaviours, processes, efficiency and achieving optimum outputs. Our current training and change portfolio includes Work Management System (WMS), behavioural safety, operational and strategic planning, effective team working and train the trainer solutions.

Competencies used on a daily basis – such as team working and planning – are often overlooked as a training requirement as companies presume they are already being utilised effectively. We do it all the time and it works, so why would we need training? Often, these very skills are the ones that require the most improvement and can have a huge effect on productivity and engagement in the workplace.

 

Activebrain

 

Activebrain methodologies have sat the heart of imorph training since Day 1. We put our Activebrain training programme into action as part of a recent collaboration with Dron & Dickson, specialists in the supply and maintenance of hazardous area electrical equipment. The Activebrain approach combines the fundamental elements of interaction, discussion and discovery to ensure that delegates are captivated and engaged throughout.

The company gained a CompEx training licence which allowed it to validate the core competencies of employees within offshore and onshore industries – and they wanted to do it a bit differently. So together with Dron & Dickson, we created a CompEx training course that achieves all the required learning outcomes whilst also ensuring that all delegate engage with, and learn from, one another.

The collaboration was facilitated to ensure that the training provided by Dron & Dickson reflects the spirit of active learning and focuses on the trainer listening more and talking a lot less. Emphasis is placed on creating a welcoming, friendly environment for small groups to work in and offers the opportunity for delegates to raise questions in an enjoyable and comfortable environment.

This kind of positive interactive learning requires the trainer to assess the class reaction and understanding of the course elements, ensuring the fundamental knowledge required is put in place through an informal approach.

Most importantly, the course ensures that students are taught to understand the correct procedures, which offer long term results and success in the day to day job, as opposed to simply learning enough information to pass an assessment.

Over recent years we have extended the Activebrain methodology to a broader remit of training, providing behavioural safety, training and change programmes and also those focused on health and wellbeing. These courses encourage people to develop and learn and in some cases, make life changing choices that ultimately affect the way they approach their role – all of which have a fundamental effect upon their work performance.

There is a wealth of invaluable knowledge and experience in the oil and gas industry worldwide, and Aberdeen is already positioning itself as a global training hub. Training is at the heart of a corporate culture and the imorph way ensures that it can be delivered effectively, which in turn will facilitate major cultural change on both a corporate and individual basis.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERACaroline Hughes founded imorph, a specialist training and change solutions provider, in 2005. The company aims to change the face of technical training by developing bespoke programmes that maximise the potential of clients’ projects, teams and organisations.

 

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