£500,000 investment in SCI Training Academy
Survival Craft Inspectorate (SCI) has invested £500,000 in a Training Academy it expects will host some 5,000 students per year.
They will be seeking to enhance their skills across a diverse range of marine and safety related disciplines at the new site, where the Marine Rescue Institute (MRI) was forced to close its doors in February this year following the severe storms which hit the area.
The facility will bolster SCI’s training offering to clients in the North Sea and internationally as it relates to equipment installed on their installations. The business presently supplies 100 lifeboat and davit launch systems and 400 Safelaunch lifeboat release and retrieval systems (LRRS) per annum. As LRRS compliance regulations come into force in 2014, SCI expects sales of its Queen’s Award winning Safelaunch system to increase.
SCI has more than 22 years’ experience in the manufacture, supply and maintenance of lifeboats, davits, liferafts and fast rescue craft, and the academy, which will complement SCI’s established training school at Findon, will enhance the skills and competency levels of personnel who use, install and service them.
SCI CEO Derek Sinclair said: “This development helps to set us apart from our competitors and gives our clients added assurance that we take training and safety extremely seriously.
We’re confident the academy will boost local hotels and shops because of the numbers of people who will attend the facility. Previously, MRI, an organisation which was internationally recognised as expert in this field, trained organisations such as the Dutch Lifeboat Authority and special forces from different parts of the world. We would expect our new academy to attract similar such organisations.
“The academy also offers us the opportunity to partner with other businesses and organisations to offer additional training to industry.”
Initially, six jobs are to be created at the training academy, with plans to add additional staff by the end of the year. All SCI engineers will be given ongoing training at the academy.
The Stonehaven site includes the main building, offices, classrooms and workshop on the harbour front, and an additional building which will be used as a training room. A davit will be installed on the quayside for practical coxswain training sessions.
Courses available at the academy will include fast rescue craft coxswain, daughter craft coxswain, twin fall lifeboat coxswain and technical training aligned with SCI products.
