CISRS have announced the accreditation and opening of a second Overseas Scaffolding Training Scheme (OSTS) centre in South Korea.
The new centre in Ulsan, in the south of the country, is opened in partnership with OSTS approved training providers, Safety & Access and Applus Velosi: Oil and gas industry sector service providers, who focus on vendor inspection, third party inspection, certification, testing, engineering and manpower services for the oil & gas sector globally.
The Ulsan centre offers CISRS scaffold related training including OSTS Scaffolder Levels 1-3, scaffold inspection and scaffold supervisor courses.
The accreditation audit was carried out this month by CISRS Scheme Manager, Dave Mosley, who was already in South Korea conducting the annual accreditation visit to the existing Safety and Access CISRS centre in Geoje. This centre established in 2013 has trained over 2,500 scaffolders, supervisors and inspectors in collaboration with Samsung Heavy Industries.
Following the accreditation, Safety & Access Joint MD Rick Statham said: “The new centre represents a very important location for us, based in Ulsan it provides a strategic base to support the major shipbuilding and offshore industries which operate locally. We have been trading in South Korea for approaching four years and we can see the requirement for quality training growing as interest in and respect for the CISRS Overseas scheme grows.”
Dave Mosley and Rick Statham took the opportunity to meet with key local clients including DSME, Shell and Chevron to give them a tour of the Geoje centre and outline the possibilities and future plans for CISRS training in the area.
Mr Mosley said: “It is very pleasing to see the CISRS OSTS scheme doing so well and Safety & Access expanding their presence in South Korea. We hope that the new centre can emulate the success of the centre here in Geoje.
“CISRS recognise the fantastic commitment made by Samsung Heavy Industries in training over 2,500 people making them, the employer and South Korea, the region with most CISRS OSTS qualified operatives worldwide.
“There is an increased interest in CISRS in South Korea at the moment, despite the current downturn in the oil and gas sector and it is great to see Shell, Chevron and DSME exploring the possibility of going down the CISRS route.”
The OSTS scheme started in 2012 and has now been established in UAE, Qatar, Philippines and South Korea, Nepal and Nigeria, training more than 4,500 scaffolders worldwide.