IMCA and ICES Competence Schemes Aligned
Two recent events have highlighted how the International Marine Contractors Association and the Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (ICES) are working closely to promote the importance of hydrographic and civil engineering surveying in the marine environment and the competency of their respective members.
Under the terms of the 2014 Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), signed by both organisations, offshore survey personnel who have completed competence portfolios based on the IMCA framework can use this as a demonstration of their competence for membership of ICES. Likewise IMCA will promote recognition of the competence of ICES members to its international offshore contractor membership where companies have competence management schemes in place based on the IMCA model.
Although the MoU talks primarily about surveyors, other roles covered within IMCA’s competence frameworks are not excluded. Examples would be those of geophysicists and data processors. Ed Danson, a much respected offshore survey industry figure, a former member of IMCA’s Offshore Survey Committee and former president of ICES, has mapped IMCA’s survey competence frameworks against the requirements for technical membership of ICES and has found a positive level of synergy between each organisation’s approach to competence assessment.
