OPAL (Oman Society for Petroleum Services) partnered with RTITB to deliver the Oman National Occupational Standard Project
The Ministry of Labour has issued a license for OPAL to establish a Sector Skills Unit (SSU) for the energy and minerals sector in Oman. OPAL is aiming to further promote standards of work, and increase competencies and professionalism among those operating plant and materials handling equipment among its more than 450 members. As part of the new assessment scheme, a competency card will be issued for lifting operators based on their skill level, in line with standards set by RTITB, a leading workplace transport training accrediting body based in the UK. The standards have been specifically designed for the new scheme to help make measurable improvements to safety, while reducing risk and increasing efficiency.
Competency cards will be issued electronically by RTITB, which will now be one of OPAL?s recognised Lifting Operation International Awarding Bodies. Red cards will be issued to candidates who have completed training and are undergoing On the Job Training (OJT), and blue cards will be given to competent operators. Only operators who have received the competency card will be able to work for OPAL members.
?This collaboration with RTITB will open the door towards the professional verification program to ensure competence of skilled workers in the energy and minerals sector in the Sultanate labour market,? said Abdulrahman Al Yahyaei, OPAL CEO.
RTITB started working in Oman in 2013, initially with PDO (Petroleum Development Oman), looking at ways to improve lifting operation standards in the oil and gas sector and provides training tools, quality assurance and certification services for operators of plant and materials handling equipment. Today, around 9,000 people in Oman attend RTITB training every year, from rigger and banksman courses to those for overhead crane, MEWPs, and more.
