TAS students taking a helicopter to Malikai Platform, 100km off KK, for their On-Job training.
One beauty about BTEC Diploma awarded by UK-based Pearson is that it is recognised worldwide and the course takes only 21 months.A game changing experience. “So who says Sabahans cannot do it? This B40 group has proven they can perform and deliver, given the opportunity,” Willie reflected. “So, we took up the challenge with no assistance from any government, with our own money, we took up the challenge that nobody had done before,” he said.
“But over time, we wanted to expand our training program to match what is required by the oil and gas industry. For example, in 2009, we wanted to do BOSEIT – Basic Offshore Safety Emergency Induction Training, because it makes no sense that while Sabah is the biggest crude oil producer in Malaysia yet it doesn’t even have a BOSEIT Centre, which forced Sabahans who needed a safety passport either to go to KL or Miri to obtain it.
“One experience I would like to share is when the external verifiers come to our centre to interview the students on competency, there were times when we extended the normal courtesy: Can we bring you out for lunch? They would say cannot, they don’t want you to influence them, you say we want to buy dinner, also cannot. After their work is done, they go back to the hotel, the next day they come back.
“This incident means that we are not necessarily trained in oil and gas. If people don’t want to work in oil and gas, they can work in power stations, in electricity companies or other production companies because they have the similar equipment,” Willie pointed out. It stands to reason that the mantra ‘Safety first’ probably is more critical on oil and gas platforms than anywhere else, given its extremely inflammable nature.