Romea Training mechanical engineers James Goh and Calvin Lam develop training courses based on AS2885 Pipelines – Gas and Liquid Petroleum, in close collaboration with maintenance and project engineering personnel working for Romea Training clients.

Project Leader and Managing Director Leng Saw says that customer involvement was a key requirement for this work.

Mr Saw says “We wanted to ensure that the end product meets the practical business requirements of our customers, and is not just based on some theoretical reference.

“We counted on our expertise as training consultants in a registered training organisation with enthusiastic young engineers working for us to come up with a solution that straddles engineering principles and competency-based training. Who better to do this than Romea Training, with over 10 years of technician competency-based training development, delivery and assessment experience?” Mr Saw says.

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“I am a mechanical engineer myself and have always had a keen interest in the engineering side of pipeline operations. It is only now that an opportunity presented itself for us to pursue this work,” Mr Saw explains.

“We interviewed and consulted closely with engineers working for our clients in operations, maintenance and projects. We asked senior engineers and managers of those departments what they expected of their engineers with respect to the application of AS2885. We walked away with a whole raft of requirements and arranged them in logical order.”

Mr Goh and Mr Lam both state that the requirements were turned into competency statements with clear assessment criteria, mapped to subject matter areas in AS2885. Next, Romea read the standard, cover to cover, deciphering and deconstructing statements in AS2885, then systematically re-building the knowledge base so that it could be used to provide a sequential constructs-based learning experience for engineers.

“It’s been over six weeks of hard gruelling work and I sometimes wake up in the middle of the night thinking of fracture control plans, but it’s been worth it!” laughs Mr Goh.

“Calvin and I have certainly learned a lot about pipeline operations from an engineering standpoint. The work has challenged us in many areas and forced us to revisit some aspects of engineering we have not used for some time. I believe what we have come up with is just the beginning of a very well rounded set of courses aimed at specific target audiences.”

Pilot courses are being conducted with Romea Training clients who helped develop the course.