The Australian Pipelines and Gas Association (APGA) Pipeline Engineer Training Program began in earnest in 2009, after several alternative approaches to capturing and transferring knowledge and understanding in the industry had been considered.
As pipeline engineering crosses many disciplines, a range of opportunities are required to increase knowledge and broaden the experiences of practitioners so they gain the competence the industry expects.
While some of this knowledge might be available through training courses at post-graduate and other levels, it was recognised that many different paths provided the way to understanding, especially in Australia where a structured and comprehensive post-graduate university course in pipeline engineering was unlikely to be developed in the foreseeable future.
APGA’s program has three main elements:
- Increasing knowledge and understanding of AS 2885;
- Providing a framework to help assess pipeline engineer competency; and,
- Developing a system for registration of pipeline engineers.
The first version of the APGA Guide to AS 2885 was published in 2010 and it provides insight into the background and philosophy underpinning the Standard to support understanding of AS 2885 and its application.
The Guide also provides information about the key processes a pipeline engineer contributes to design, construction and operations.
The first version, which is also the current version, covers Part 1 of AS 2885.
The second element of the program is the APGA Pipeline Engineer Competency Standards which create a framework for understanding competency in pipeline engineers and a means of assessing and documenting it.
The competency standards are comprehensive, covering the streams of design, construction, operations and maintenance as well as general pipeline engineering.
The standards have been designed to have a uniform format with consistent elements to enable a clear understanding of what is required for competency.
Each standard clearly identifies the knowledge, experience and expertise required to achieve competence and outlines the roles and responsibilities a pipeline engineer will be able to undertake after achieving competency.
Importantly, the competency standards are developed by panels of industry experts and are based on meeting the requirements of the pipeline industry in Australia.
So far, all the core competencies have been detailed and a significant number of the remaining elective and specialist competencies have also been completed for onshore pipeline engineering.
The remaining onshore competency standards will be developed and published by the end of June 2016.
A group of industry experts based in Perth has been working on developing a set of competency standards for pipeline engineers in the offshore sector.
This work is gathering pace and an international panel of experts has completed a review of the first batch of competencies from among the approximately 80 identified for offshore pipeline engineering.
The volunteers developing the offshore competency standards are planning to complete their work by the end of 2015.
A number of tools have been developed to enable the use of the competency standards by companies, individuals, training organisation and so on.
These tools are available to members on the APGA website after log-on via this link: www.apga.org.au/training/pipeline-engineer-training-project/about-the-competency-standards
Uses of the tools and competencies include: designing training courses, undertaking performance reviews, highlighting gaps in individual or team competency, planning career paths and commissioning training.
But it is the third element of APGA’s Pipeline Engineer Training Program that really brings it all together.
The process for registration in the specific area of practice of oil and gas pipeline engineering opens the door to seeing how all the elements of APGA’s pipeline engineer training program have been designed to fit together.
Registration in this specific area of practice is based on APGA’s competency standards and application is made using the APGA Pipeline Engineer Portfolio.
The portfolio can be used as a contemporaneous record of a pipeline engineer’s work experience and knowledge acquisition and, together with the competency standards, the paths to achieving the required knowledge and experience become apparent.
Using the tools can enable engineers and their supervisors to plan opportunities for filling gaps in an employee’s knowledge and experience, thus enabling the continuous development of engineers that meet the expectations of the industry and the rest of the nation which relies on competent professional engineers for public safety.
You can find out all you need to know about registering in the specific area of practice of oil and gas pipeline engineering here: www.apga.org.au/training/pipeline-engineer-registration and you can download the portfolio by following the links from that page.