Engineering and project delivery firm, Sinclair Knight Merz, will open a custom-designed safety training centre costing more than $1 million at the Perth domestic airport business precinct early next year
In response to the needs of their mining, oil and gas clients, the training facility will offer safety and induction training, supervisor development, health and safety, and skills training at a single location.
The Safety Learning Centre will incorporate training methods that can be tailored to meet the specific needs of clients and their different sites.
The training centre is a first for SKM, and could potentially be used as a model for developing other similar centres globally.
The centre will be located on the ground floor of the new H-Kew Alpha office development at Perth domestic airport, occupying 1,300 square metres of space.
With the ability to accommodate up to120 people in a 24-hour period, and the option of doubling capacity up to 240 people, the centre will also operate over extended hours to cater for fly-in fly-out work schedules.
Learning centre and program manager, Mick Hyde, said the skills shortage and the growing number of new entrants into the resources industry had given rise to the need for easy-to-access training and development programs.
He said input from industry was pivotal in developing the facility.
“It became very apparent that if we listened to what industry was saying they would tell us what they wanted,” Mr Hyde told WA Business News.
“We had a blank canvas, and we went to industry to see what they required.”
Mr Hyde said industry had made it clear that location was an important consideration, with the airport business precinct providing close proximity to fly-in fly-out workers, as well as nearby childcare facilities and a proposed medical centre.
The centre will offer nationally accredited training programs, offering certificates in frontline management, metalliferous mining, training and assessment and occupational health and safety.
Participants can also have their skills formally recognised through a statement of attainment, with the opportunity to take their training further by completing a certificate course
Mr Hyde said offering employees further training pathways was an important tool for attracting and retaining staff.
The centre will initially cater for the mining and oil and gas sectors, with a view to expanding its offering out to the civil construction and transport and distribution industries.
It will feature SKM’s interactive visual safety methodology, an evolution of the training method developed in Germany, which it believes is more effective in knowledge absorption compared with other forms of passive learning.
A number of SKM’s clients, including BHP Billiton Iron Ore, Rio Tinto and Chevron, have already expressed interest in using the facility.
