Female pupils from Gordon Schools Huntly visited the offshore safety and survival firm, Falck Nutec, in Dyce as part of their Skills for Work Energy programme.
The Skills for Work Energy programme is run by Banff and Buchan College and is supported by Shell and Schlumberger. It aims to introduce female students to the Energy Industry by providing positive training, to encourage more females into a typically male-dominated industry.
As part of the programme the girls are given various opportunities to visit firms within the industry, so that they can relate the skills they learn throughout the course to real life job opportunities. The visit to Falck Nutec was arranged to enable the girls to have a taster on the survival training required to work in an offshore environment.
The girls were giving training in the classroom on all aspect of survival at sea, including how to survive in a life craft, keep as warm as possible in water, and how to get noticed by rescue teams. Girl power took over in the water where the girls put the classroom knowledge to use, with the help of the qualified instructors and divers, but the most exciting part of the girls experience was escaping from the submerged helicopter.
Greig Duncan, PR & Marketing Executive at Falck Nutec , added that: “We were delighted to host this visit for a second consecutive year. We have a strong partnership with Banff and Buchan College, and are glad that the visit added value to the girls’ overall training experience – even the daunting prospect of the underwater helicopter escape! Historically this sector has been labelled as being a ‘male industry’, but encouragingly more and more females are continuing to enter the offshore market in a range of roles – which is highly encouraging. This is something we are eager to promote on the whole, and this excellent scheme goes a long way to emphasising this aim.”
The girls thanked everyone at Falck Nutec for their memorable experiences that will help them with their further careers.
[mappress]
Offshore WIND staff, May 09, 2012; Image: falck