Awareness Course on Metocean Services
Following the success of the first two London-based Institute of Marine Engineering, Science and Technology (IMarEST) three-day Metocean Awareness Courses, held in 2009, a third one is to be held 7-9 September in London, UK, at IMarEST headquarters.
The course is designed to ensure greater awareness of metocean conditions worldwide amongst project managers and engineers working in the full range of offshore industries involved in operations or design, ranging from new industry entrants to those with many years' experience. Future courses are planned for Aberdeen, Houston and Kuala Lumpur.
"We were extremely pleased by the response to our initial courses last year," says Dr Marcus Jones, Chief Executive of the IMarEST. "We are delighted to have Dr Chris Graham once again as the overall facilitator and one of the expert speakers and authors of the course, who will be joined once again by the invited speakers who are experts in their field, and who took part in our first two courses."
The non-residential course will include the mixture of short presentations and participatory workshop sessions including a group case study exercise which has proved so successful on the earlier courses.
As Dr Graham explains: "We aim for our delegates to learn just why metocean is important to the offshore industry; and, with their newly accrued understanding, engage better with internal and external stakeholders on metocean matters," he adds. "This transfer of knowledge is also essential as the crew change in staff across the industry continues to gather momentum despite the recent downturn.
"Delegates will become familiar with how metocean conditions around the world impact operations and engineering; and will learn how metocean statistics are derived and presented and, most importantly, how they are used. After the three days they will be aware of how weather and ocean forecasts are derived; be able to identify the process for obtaining key metocean deliverables; and understand where metocean information and advice can be obtained. Feeling at home with these topics will undoubtedly give them added confidence."
Other experts involved with the Metocean Awareness Course include Robin Stephens, Dr Colin Grant, Trevor Pitt, Dr Ralph Rayner, Dr Mark Calverley, and Ian Leggett. Networking is part and parcel of the three days, with a drinks reception at the end of the first day; and a course dinner on the second evening as well as lunch, coffee and tea breaks on all three days.
