In 2010, five young pipeliners received assistance to attend the International Pipeline Conference in Calgary, then last year four young people received scholarships from APIA and the Australian Gas Industry Trust (AGIT) to attend the international pipeline research conference (the Joint Technical Meeting) in San Francisco followed by a tour of gas and pipeline facilities in North America. This year, the AGIT is sending five young people to the World Gas Conference (WGC) in Kuala Lumpur in June 2012.
APIA will send THREE young pipeline industry employees to the WGC. Applications have now closed and the successful candidates will be announced soon.
This is a tremendous opportunity for young people in our industry. It builds on the work of the Young Pipeliners Forum, which has increased opportunities for knowledge transfer and mentoring in our industry (and, of course, just a bit of networking and fun!) WGC 2012 is a triennial conference run by the International Gas Union, a worldwide non-profit organisation of 109 members from 74 countries. Not every paper or activity at WGC 2012 will be of interest or relevance to our young participants, but the experience of attending an international conference and meeting people with a range of experience and expertise, can only benefit them. It will also be of benefit to the employers of these young people, as they return with new ideas and a renewed focus on their careers.
On the matter of education and training, APIA is now in negotiation with the American Society of Mechanical Engineers’ (ASME’s) pipeline people regarding our Competency Standards (on the APIA website) which detail the skills required by a pipeline engineer. ASME is developing its own post-graduate program and sees APIA’s work as a substantive start to that program. Rather than starting from scratch, ASME will work with APIA to adapt and adopt the Australian Competency Standards, which are based on the requirements of AS2885, to suit the American system.
We believe that an ongoing working arrangement can be developed, so that further development work in the US can be adapted to the Australian program and vice versa, keeping our system up-to-date. Details of courses that provide access to training in these skills will soon be available.
APIA is also in the process of establishing a Competency Panel and Assessment Panel under the requirements of Engineers Australia’s (EA’s) National Engineering Registration Board. We’ve been asking for this, and now it’s finally happening.
EA has agreed to establish pipeline engineering as a recognised branching of the engineering profession. But, to do this, we need competent, experienced and qualified pipeline engineers from all sectors to participate on the Competency Panel and Assessment Panel. The Pipeline Engineer Training Project Manager, Chris Harvey, and I will be in contact with possible participants in the next few months so that this process can begin. While participation will take a little of your time, if you are an experienced pipeliner and you want to ensure that this industry receives the credit it deserves, I urge you to step up and take us to the next level. Recognition by EA is long overdue – but we deserve it!
Also on the matter of training – but a quite different matter – is the establishment of a gas transmission construction qualification in the National Gas Training Package. It took a couple of years and much negotiation to have gas transmission training included in this national training package. Importantly, it does mean that this training, when delivered by RTOs can receive government assistance and participants will be recognised at Certificate II level. APIA’s Policy Adviser, Steve Davies, has written about this opportunity in his policy report (see page 106).
Also of note: the CSG gathering lines Code of Practice Revision 2 is underway, with more news to come; and, the review of the Code of Environmental Practice will also begin this year.
